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a aongue of JFlam q The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of flame; every prison a more illustrious abode; every burned book or house en- lightens the world; every suppres- sed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side. The minds of men are at last aroused; reason looks out and justifies her own, and malice finds all her work is ruin. It is the whipper who is whipped and the tyrant who is undone.-Emerson.

8 .

I1III~llUlll~ll~IIllUllllUlll~lllUUUl~llllUllllUlllllUllllllllllllllUllllllllillll~lllllllliIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIlllllll!lllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll~ MURDER OR SELF-DEFENSE?

HIS BOOKLET is not an apology for murder. It is an honest effort to unravel the tangled mesh of circumstances that led up to the Armistice Day tragedy in Centralia, Washington. The writer is one of those who believe that the tak- ing of human life is justifiable .only in self-defense. Even then the act is a horrible reversion to the brute-to the low plane of savagery. Civilization, to be worthy of the name, must afford other methods of settling human differences than those of blood letting. The nation was shocked on November 11, 1919, to read of the killing of four American Legion men by members of the In- dustrial Workers of the World in Centralia. The capitalist news- papers announced to the world that these unoffending paraders were killed in cold blood-that they were murdered from ambush without’provocation of any kind. If the author were convinced that there was even a slight possibility of this being true, he would not raise ‘his voice to defend the perpetrators of such a coward1 y crime. But there are two sides to every question and perhaps the newspapers~presented only one of these. Dr. Frank Bickford, an ex-service man who participated in the affair, testified at the coroner’s inquest that the Legion men were attempting to raid the union hall when they were killed. Sworn testimony of various eyewitnesses has revealed the fact that some of the “unoffending paraders” carried coils of rope and that others were armed with such weapons as would work the demolition of the hall and bodily injury to its occupants. These things throw an entirely different light on the subject. If this is true it means that the union loggers fired only in self-defense and not with the inten- tion of committing wanton and malicious ,murder as has been stated. Now, as at least two of the union men who did the shoot- ing were ex-soldiers, it appears that the tragedy must have re- sulted $rom something more than a mere. quarrel between log- gers and soldi&. There must be something back of it all that the public generally doesn’t know about. There. is only one body of men in the Northwest who would ha&;,,a union hall enough to have it ralded-the lumber “mter- And now we get at the kernel of the matter, which is the fact’ that the affair was the outgrowth of a struggle between the lumber trust and its employees-between Organized Capital and Organized Labor. A LABOR CASE And so, after all, the famous trial at Montesano was not a murder trial but a labor trial in the strict sense of the word. Under the law, it must be remembered, a man is not committing murder in defending his life and property from the felonious assault of a mob bent on killing and destruction. There is no doubt whatever but what the lumber trust had plotted to “make an example” of the loggers and to destroy their hall on this oc- casion. And this was not the first time that such atrocities had been attempted and actually committed. Isn’t it peculiar that, out of many similar raids, you only heard of the one where the men defended themselves? Self-preservation is the first law of nature, but the preservation of its holy profits is the first law of the lumber trust. The organized lumber workers were con- sidered a menace to the super-prosperity of a few profiteers- hence the attempted raid and the subsequent killing. What is more significant is the fact that the raid had been carefully planned weeks in advance. There is a great deal ‘of evidence to prove this point. There is no question that the whole affair was the outcome of a struggle-a class struggle, if you please-between the union loggers and the lumber interests; the former seeking to organize the workers in the woods and the latter fighting this movement with all the means at its disposal. In this light the Centralia affair does not appear as an iso- lated incident but rather an incident in an eventful industrial conflict, little known and less understood, between the lumber barons and loggers of the Pacific Northwest. This viewpoint . will place Centralia in its proper perspective and enable one to trace the tragedy back to the circumstances and conditions that gave it birth. But was there a conspiracy on the part of the lumber in- terests to commit murder and violence in an effort to drive or- ganized labor from its domain? Weeks of patient investigating in and around the scene or the occurrence has convinced the present writer that such a con- spiracy existed. A considerable amount of startling evidence has been unearthed that has hitherto been suppressed. If you care to consider Labor’s version of this unfortunate incident you are urged to read the following truthful account of this almost un- believable piece of mediaeval intrigue and brutality. The facts will speak for themselves. Credit them- or not, . but read ! -- *THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST The Pacific Northwest is world famed for its timber. The first white explorers to set foot upon its fertile soil were awed by the magnitude and grandeur of its boundless stretches of virgin forests. Nature has never endowed any section of our fair world with such an immensity of kingly trees. Towering 2 into the sky to unthinkable heights, they stand as living monu- ments to the fecundity of natural hfe. Imagine, if you can, the vast wide region of the West. coast, hills, slopes and valleys, covered with millions of fir, spruce and cedar trees, raising their verdant crests a hundred, two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet into the air. When Columbus first landed on the unchartered continent these trees were already ancient. There they stood, straight and majestic with green and foam-flecked streams purling -here and there at their feet, crowning the rugged landscape with super- lative beauty, overtopped only by the snow-capped mountains- waiting for the hand of man to put them to the multitudinous uses of modern civilization. Imagine, if you can, the first ex- plorer, gazing awe-stricken down those “calm cathedral isles,” wondering at&he lavish bounty of our Mother Earth in supplying her children with such inexhaustible resources. But little could the first explorer know that the criminal clutch of Greed was soon to seize these mighty forests, guard them from the human race with bayonets, hangman’s ropes and legal statutes ; and use them, robber-baron like, to exact un- imaginable tribute‘ from the men and women of the world who need them. Little did the first explorer dream that the day would come when individuals would claim private ownership of that which prolific nature had travailed through centuries to be- stow upon mankind. But that day has come and with it the struggle between master and man that was to result in Centralia-or possibly many Centralias.

LUMBER-A BASIC INDUSTRY It seems the most logical thing in the world to believe that the natural resources of the Earth, upon which the race depends for food, clothing and shelter, should be owned collectively by the race instead of being the private property of a few social parasites. It seems that reason would preclude .the possibility of any other arrangement, and that it would be considered as absurd for in- dividuals to lay claim to forests, mines, railroads and factories as it would be for individuals to lay claim to the ownership of the sunlight that warms us or to the air we breathe. But the poor human race, in its bungling efforts to learn how to live in our beautiful world, appears destined to find out by bitter experience that the private ownership of the means of life is both criminal and disastrous. Lumber is one of the basic industries-one of the industries mankind never could have done without. The whole structure of what we call civilization is built upon wooden timbers, ax-hewn! ‘or machine finished as the case may be. Without the product of the forests humanity would never have learned the use of fire, the primitive bow and arrow or the bulging galleys of ancient commerce- Without the firm and fibrous flesh of the mighty, 3 might never have naa Darp ‘fishing or weapons for thee they would not have had carts for their oxen or kilns for the g of pottery; they would not have 1naa T awe1 Ilings, temples or cities; they wou lld not have had furniture nor fittings nor roofs above their heads. Wood is one of the most primi- tive and indispensable of human necessities. Without its use we would still be groping in the gloom and misery of early savag- ery, suffering from the cold of outer space and defenseless in the midst of a harsh and hostile

F PARASITE So it happened that the first pioneers in the northern forests were forced to bare their arms h their strength with the wooded wilderness. At first the subjugation of the forests was a social effort. The lives and future prosperity of the set- tlers must be made secure from the raids of the Indians and the inclemency of the elements. Man- fully did these men labor until their work was done, But this period did not last long, for the tide of emigration was sweeping westward over the sun-baked prairies to the promised land in the golden West. Towns sprang up like magic, new trees were felled, sawmills erected and huge logs in ever in- creasing numbers were driven down the foaming torrents each FIR AKD SPRTJCE TREES year at spring time. The country The woods of the West coast abound with was new, the market for lumber tall fir trees. Practically all high grade sprnce homes from this district also. Spruce constantly growing and expand- was B war necessity and the lumber trust ing. But the monopolist was un- profiteered unmercifolls on the IIDY~TXI- merit. U. S. prknw are full of lo~w3-s known and the lynch-mobs of the who struck for the 8 hour day in 1917. lumber trust still sleeping in the womb of the Future. So passed the not unhap- ) py period when opportunity L was open to everyone, when freedom was dear to the hearts of all. It was at this time that the spirit of real Americanism was born, when the clean, sturdy name “America” spelled freedom, justice and inde- pendence. Patriotism in these days was not a mask for profiteers and murder- ers were not permitted to hide their bloody hands in the^. folds of their nation’s Slag. But modern capitalism was creeping like a black curse upon the land. Steal- ing, coercing, cajoling, de- frauding, it spread from its plague-center in Wall St., leaving misery, class anta- gonism and resentment in its trail. The old free Amer- ica of our fathers was 1 undergoing a profound ! change. Equality of op-IDor- tunity was doomed. A new social alignment was being created. Monopoly was loos- ed upon the land. Fabulous fortunes were being made as wealth was becoming centered into fewer and fewer hands. Modern tzapi- talism was intrenching it- self for the final and in- evitable struggle for world domination. In due time the social parasites of the East, foreseeing that the forests of Main& MichiEan and n-n *I-, “““IES OF THE NORTHWEST Wisconsin’ could %ot last ti,WUAfi In’ forever, began to look to the ~~~~,~ waeand giantssk the logger daily matches his ‘511. The profit-greedy lumber trust woods of the Northwest has wasted emxwn -L I_---LF~W ox_a sm~,,rr--_I,_- SBL~_:__ I^w JUPY~Y^..^_ I__ &I.^LU= with covetous eyes. world with wood for year‘s to come. STEALING THE PEOPLE’S FOREST LAND The history of the acquisition of the forests of Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and California is a long, sordid story of thinly veiled robbery and intrigue. The methods of the lumber barons in invading and seizing its “holdings” did not differ great- ly, however, from those of the steel and oil kings, the railroad magnates or any of the other industrial potentates who acquired great wealth by pilfering America and peonizing its people. The whole sorry proceeding was disgraceful, high-handed and treach- erous, and only made possible by reason of the blindness of the generous American people, drugged with the vanishing hope of “success” and too confident of the continued possession of its blood-bought liberties. And so the lumber barons were unhinder- ed in their infamous work of debauchery, bribery, murder and brazen fraud. As a result the monopoly of the Northwestern woods became an established fact. The lumber trust came into “its own.” The new social alignment was complete, with the idle, absentee land- lord at one end and the migratory and possessionless lumber jack at the other. The parasites had appropriated to themselves the standing timber of the Northwest; but the brawny logger whose labor had made possible the development of the industry was . given, as his share of the spoils, a crumby “bindle” and a rebel- lious heart. The masters had gained undisputed control of the timber of the country, three quarters of which is located in the Northwest; but the workers who felled the trees, drove the logs, dressed, finished and loaded the lumber were left in the state of helpless dependency from which they could only extricate them- selves by means of organization. And it is this effort to form a union and establish union headquarters that led to the tragedy at Centralia. The lumber barons had not only achieved a monopoly of the woods but a perfect feudal domination of the woods as well. With- in their domain banks, ships, railways and mills bore their private insignia-and politicians, Employers’ Associations, preachers, newspapers, fraternal orders and judges and gun-men were al- ways at their beck and call. The power they wield is tremendous and their profits would ransom a kingdom. Naturally they did not intend to permit either power or profits to be menaced by a mass of weather-beaten slaves in stag shirts and overalls. And so the struggle waxed fiercer just as the lumberjack learned to con- tend successfully for living conditions and adequate remunera- tion. It was the old, old conflict of human rights against property rights. Let us see how they compared in strength. THE TRIUMPH OF MONOPOLY The following extract from a document entitled “The Lumber Industry,” by the Honorable Herbert Knox Smith and published by the U. S. Department of Commerce (Bureau of Corporations) will give some idea of the holdings and influence of the lumber trust: 6 FIII ,--,- -” ..“.- “T6n. .,I. mnnnnnlv.‘.“--“pV.J trrni~~qb-v”& ag- ‘“--q gregating only one tho usand, eight hundred and two hold- I ers, monopolized one thou- sand, two hundred and eight i billion eight hundred million I (1,208,800,000,000) board feet / of standing timber-each a I foot square and an inch thick. These figures are so stupend- ous that they are meaning- less without a hackneyed de- vice to bring their meaning home. These one thousand, i eight hundred and two timber business monopolists h e 1 d enough standing timber, an indispensible natural resource, to yield the planks necessary (over and above manufactur- j ing wastage) to make a float- ing bridge more than two feet thick and more than five miles : wide from New York to Liver- i pool. It would supply one inch planks for a roof over i . France, Germany and Italy. It ; would build a fence eleven j miles high along our entire I coast line. All monopolized by / one thousand, eight hundred and two holders, or interests more or less interlocked. One of those interests-a grant of only three holders-monopol- ized at one time two hundred and thirty-seven billion, five ~~~~f~~lionw~~~500,000,- would make a column one foot square and three million miles high. Although controlled by only three holders, that inter- est comprised over eight per cent of all the standing timber in the United States at that .me.” “TOPI'TN~" A TRFF, 1 After one of these huee trees. is “topped” it is called a “spar tree”-very necessary in a cer- The above illuminating fig- +-in kind of loaaina operations. As so011 a!~ ures, quoted from “The I. W. ii, e chopped-off portions falls. the trunkm vi- brateq rapidly from side to slde-somet~mes W. in the Lumber Industry,” shakincr the IOXDT to retain death below. by James Rowan, will give some idea of the magnitude and power of the lumber trust. Opposing this colossal aggregation of wealth and cussedness were the thousands of hard-driven and exploited lumberworkers in the woods and sawmills. These had neither wealth nor in- fluence-nothing but their hard, bare hands and a growing sense of solidarity. And the masters of the forests were more afraid of this solidarity than anything else in the world-and they fought it more bitterly, as events will show. Centralia is only one of the incidents of this struggle between owner and worker. But let us see what this hated and indispensible logger-the productive and human basis of the lumber industry, the man who made all these things possible, is like.

THE HUMAN ELEMENT-“THE TIMBER BEAST” Lumber workers are, by nature of their employment, divided into two categories-the saw-mill hand and the logger. The former, like his brothers in the Eastern factories, is an indoor type while the latter is essentially a man of the open air. Both types are necessary to the production of finished lumber, and to both union organization is an imperative necessity. Sawmill work is machine work-rapid, tedious and often dangerous. There is the uninteresting repetition of the same act of motions day in and day out. The sights, sounds and smells of the mill are never varied. The fact that the mill is perma- nently located tends to keep mill workers grouped about the place of their employment. Many of them, especially in the shingle mills, have lost fingers or hands in feeding the lumber to the screaming saws. It has been estimated that fully a half of these men are married and remain settled in the mill communities. The other half, however, are not nearly so, migratory as the lumber- jack. Sawmill workers are not the “rough-necks” of the industry. They are of the more conservative “home guard” element and characterized by the psychology of all factory workers. The logger, on the other hand, (and it is with him our nar- rative is chiefly concerned), is accustomed to hard and hazardous work in the open woods. His occupation makes him of necessity migratory. The camp, following the uncut timber from place to place, makes it impossible for him to acquire a family and settle down. Scarcely one out of ten has ever dared assume the res- ponsibility of matrimony. The necessity of shipping from a cen- tral point in going from one job to another usually forces a migra- tory existence upon the lumberjack in spite of his best intentions to live otherwise. WHAT IS A CASUAL LABORER? The problem of the logger is that of the casual laborer in general. Broadly speaking, there are three distinct classes of casual laborers : First, the “harvest stiff” of the middle West who follows the ripening crops from Kansas to the Dakotas, 8 finding winter employ- ment in the North, Mid- dle Western woods, in construction camps or on the ice fields. Then there is the harvest worker of “the Coast” who garners the fruit, hops and grain, and does the canning of California. Washington and Oregon, finding %ut- of-season employment wherever possible. Final- ly there is the North- western logger, whose work, unlike that of the Middle Western “jack,” is not seasonal, but who is compelled nevertheless to remain migratory. As a rule, however, his habi- tat is confined, according to preference or force of circumstances, to either the “long log” country of Western Washington and A LOGGER OF THE PACIFIC Oregon as well as Califor- NORTHWEST nia,-or to the “short log” Thisisatspegtregion of be men who work in the “loniz 10s” me west coast. His is P man’s sized job. c’o un try of Eastern and his e _..__.ffotta tn._ omanize..__ ~~~ and better the working Washington and Oregon, conditions in the lumber industry have been manly Northern Idaho and efforts-and 1:dtterly opposed. Western Montana. Minnesota, Michigan al nd Wisconsin are in what is called the “short log” region. As a rule the logger of the Northwest follows the woods to the exclusion of all other employment. He is militantly a lum- berjack and is inclined to be a trifle “patriotic” and disputatious as to the relative importance of his own particular branch of the industry. “Long loggers,” for instance, view with a suspicion of i .disdain the work of “short loggers” and vice versa. “LUMBER-JACK” THE GIANT KILLER But the lumberjack is a casual worker and he is the finished product of modern capitalism, He is the perfect proletarian type -possessionless, homeless, rebellious. He is the reverse side of the gilded medal of present day society. On the one side is the third generation idle rich-arrogant and parasitical, and on the other, the actual producer, economically helpless and denied ac- cess to the means of production u.nless he “beg his lordly fellow worm to give him leave to toil,” as Robert Burns has it. The logger of the Northwest has his faults. He is not any more perfect than the rest of us. The years of degradation and struggle he has endured in the woods have not failed to leave their mark upon him. But, as the wage workers go, he is not the com- mon but the uncommon type both as regards physical strength and cleanliness and mental alertness. He is generous to a fault and has all the qualities Lincoln and Whitman loved in men. In the first place, whether as faller, rigging man or on the “drive,” his work is muscular and out of doors. He must at all times conquer the forest and battle with the elements. There is a tang and adventure to his labor in the impressive solitude of the woods that gives him a steady eye, a strong arm and a clear brain. Being constantly close to the great green heart of Nature, he acquires the dignity and independence of the savage rather than the passive and unresisting submission of the fac- tory worker. The fact that he is free from family ties also tends to make him ready for an industrial frolic or fight at any time. In daily matching his prowess and skill with the products of the earth he feels in a way, that the woods “belong” to him and de- velops a contempt for th.e unseen and unknown employers who kindly permit him to enrich them with his labor. He is con- stantly reminded of the glaring absurdity of the private owner- ship of natural resources. Instinctively he becomes a rebel against the injustice and contradictions of capitalist society. Dwarfed to ant-like insignificance by the verdant immensity around him, the logger toils daily with ax, saw and cable. One after another forest giants of dizzy height crash to the earth with a sound like thunder. In a short time they are loaded on flat cars and hurried across the stump-dotted clearing to the river, whence they are dispatched to the noisy, ever-waiting saws at the mill. And always the logger knows in his heart that this is not done that people may have lumber for their needs, but rather that some overfed parasite may first add to his holy dividends. Production for profit always strikes the logger with the full force of objective observation. And is it any wonder, with the process of exploitation thus naked always before his eyes, that he should have been among the very first workers to challenge the flimsy title of the lumber barons to the private ownership of the woods? THE FACTORY WORKER AND THE LUMBER-JACK

Without wishing to disparage the ultimate worth of either, l it might be well to contrast for a moment the factory worker of; .~,_ the East with the lumber-jack of the Pacific Northwest. To the factory hand the master’s claim to the exclusive title of the means of production is not so evidently absurd. Around him are huge, smoking buildings filled with roaring machinery-all man-made. - As a rule he simply takes for granted that his employers-who- ever they are-own these just as he himself owns, for instance, his pipe or his furniture. Only when he learns, from thoughtful observation or study, that such things are the appropriated prc+ ducts of the labor of himself and his kind, does the truth dawn upon him that labor produces all and is entitled to its own. 10 . ..^ c

T,OGGTNG OPERATIONS Look around you at the present moment and you will me wood wed for many different pur- poses. Have you ever stopped to think where the raw material comes from or what the worken are like who produce it? Here is a wxne from a lumber camp showing the loggera at their daily tasks. The lumber trust is willing that these men should work-but not ormmize. It must be admitted that factory Iife tends to dispirit and cow the workers who spend their lives in the gloomy confines of the modern mill or shop. Obedient to the shrill whistle they pour out of their clustered grey dwellings in the early morning. out of the labor ghettos they swarm and into their dismal slave-pens. Then the long monotonous, daily “grind,” and home again to repeat the identical proceeding on the following day. Almost always tired, trained to harsh discipline or content with low com- fort; they are all too liable to feel that capitalism is invincibly colossal and that the possibility of a better day is hopelessly re- mote. Most of them are unacquainted with their neighbors. They live in small family or boarding house units and, having no corn- * mon meeting place, realize only with difficulty the mighty potency of their vast numbers. To them organization appears desirable at times but unattainable. The dickering conservatism of craft unionism appeals to their cauticus natures. They act only en masse, under awful compulsion and then their release of repres- sed slave emotion is sudden and terrible. Not so with the weather-tanned husky of the Northwestern woods. His job life is a group life. He walks to his daily task with his fellow workers. He is seldom employed for long away 11 from them. At a common table he eats with them, and they all sleep in common bunk houses. The trees themseIves teach him to scorn his master’s adventitious claim to exclusive owner- ship. The circumstances of his daily occupation show him the need of class solidarity. His strong body clamours constantly for the sweetness and comforts of life that are denied him, his alert brain urges him to organize and his independent spirit gives him the courage and tenacity to .achieve his aims. The union hall is often his only home and the One Big Union his best-beloved. He is fond of reading and discussion. He resents industrial slav- ery as an insult. He resented filth, overwork and poverty, he resented being made to carry his own bundle of blankets from job to job; he gritted his teeth together and fought until he had ground these obnoxious things under his iron-caulked heel. The lumber trust hated him just in proportion as he gained and used his industrial power; but neither curses, promises nor blows could make him budge. He knew what he wanted and he knew how to get what he wanted. And his bosses didn’t like it very well. The lumber-jack is secretive .and not given to expressed emotion-excepting in his union songs. The bosses don’t like his songs either. But the logger isn’t worried a bit. Working away in the woods every day, or in his bunk at night, he dreams his dream of the world as he thinks it should be-that “wild wobbly dream” that every passing day brings closer to realizai tion-and he wants all who work around him to share his vision and his determination to win so that all will be ready and worthy to live in the New Day that is dawning. In a word the Northwestern lumber-jack was too human and too stubborn ever to repudiate his red-blooded manhood at the behest of his masters and become a serf. His union meant to him all that he possessed or hoped to gain. Is it any wonder that he endured the tortures of hell during the period of the war rather than yield his Red Card-or that he is still determined and still undefeated? Is it any wonder the lumber barons hated him and sought to break his spirit with brute force and legal cun- ning-or that they conspired to murder it at Centralia with mob violence-and failed ? WHY THE LOGGERS ORGANIZED The condition of the logger previous to the period of organi- zation beggars description. Modern industrial autocracy seemed with him to develop its most inhuman characteristics. The evil plant of wage slavery appeared to bear its most noxious blos- soms in the woods. The hours of labor were unendurably long, ten hours being the general rule-with the exception of the Grays Harbor dis- trict,. where the eleven or even twelve hour day prevailed. In addition to this men were compelled to walk considerable dis- tances to and from their work and meals through the wet brush. 12 Not infrequently the noon lunch was made aImost impossible be- cause of the order to be back on the job when work commenced. A ten hour stretch of arduous labor, in a cIimate where inces- sant rain is the rule for at least six months of the year, was enough to try the strength and patience of even the strongest.. The wages too were pitiably inadequate. The camps themselves, always more or less temporary af- fairs, were inferior to the cow-shed accommodations of a cattle ranch. The bunk houses were over-crowded, ill-smelling and un- sanitary. In these ramshackle affairs the loggers were packed like sardines. The bunks were arranged tier over tier and nearly always without mattresses. They were uniformly vermin-in- fested and sometimes of the “muzzle-loading” variety. No blankets were furnished, each logger being compelled to supply his own. There were no facilities for bathing or the washing and drying of sweaty clothing. Lighting and ventilation were, of course, always poor. In addition to these discomforts the unorganized logger Gas charged a monthly hospital fee for imaginary medical service. Also it was nearly always necessary to pay for the opportunity of enjoying these privileges by purchasing employment from a “job shark” or securing the good graces of a “man catcher.” The former often had “business agreements” with the camp fore- man and, in many cases, a man could not get a job unless he had a ticket from a labor agent in some shipping point. It may be said that the conditions just described were mor& prevalent in some parts of the lumber country than in others. Nevertheless, these prevailed pretty generally in all sections of the industry before the workers attempted to better them by organizing. At all events such were the conditions the lumber barons sought with all their power to preserve and the loggers to change. ORGANIZATION AND THE OPENING -STRUGGLE A few years before the birth of the Industrial Workers of the World the lumber workers had started to organize. By 1905, when the above mentioned union was launched, lumberworkers were already united in considerable numbers in the old Western, afterwards the American Labor Union. This organization took steps to affiliate with the Industrial Workers of the World and’ ‘was thus among the very first to seek a larger share of life in the ranks of that militant and maligned organization. Strike followed strike with varying success and the conditions of the loggers began preceptibly to improve. Scattered here and there in the cities of the Northwest were- many locals of the Industrial Workers of the World. Not until 1912, however, were these consolidated into a real industrial unit. For the first time a sufficient number of loggers and saw mill men were organized to be grouped into an integral part of the One Big Union. This was done with reasonable success. In them following year the American Federation of Labor attempted a 12 similar task but without lasting results. the loggers preferring the industrial to-the &aft form of organization. Besides this, they were predisposed to sympa- thize with the ideal of solidarity and Industrial Democracy for which their own union had stood from the beginning. The “timber beast” was starting to reap the benefits of his organized power. Also he was about to feel the force and ha- tred of the “interests” arrayed against him. He was soon to learn that the path of labor uni- onism is strewn with more rocks than roses. He was making an earnest effort to emerge from the squalor and misery of peon- age and was soon to see that his * 1 .a-- , overlords were satisfied to keep i i him right where he had always been. Strange to say, almost the first really important clash oc- EUGENE BARNETT curred in the very heart of the (After the man-hunt) lumber trust’s domain, in the lit- Coal miner. Born in North Carolina. &fern- tle city of Aberdeen, Grays Har- her at U. M. W. A. and I. w. w. Went ii work underground at the age of eight. bor County-only a short dis- Self educated, a student a~ Id philosopher. tance from Centralia, of mob Upon reachi-” ‘.- h-m-=.“..... RamY.....ett, fearful of the mob, too k to the woods with his rifle. fame! He surrendered to the wmse only after he had convinced himself that their purpose This was in 1912. A strike was not to lynch him. had started in the saw mills over demands of a $2.50 daily wage. Some of the saw mill workers were members of the Industrial Workers of the World. They were supported by the union log- gers of Western Washington. The struggle was bitterly con- tested and lasted for several weeks. The lumber trust bared its fangs and struck viciously at the workers in a manner that has since characterized its tactics in all labor disputes. The jails of Aberdeen and adjoining towns were filled with strikers. Picket lines were broken up and the pickets arrested. When the wives of the strikers with babies in their arms, took the places of their imprisoned husbands, the fire hose was turned on them with great force, in many instances knocking them to the ground. Loggers and sawmill men alike were unmercifully beaten. Many were slugged by mobs with pick handles, taken to the outskirts of the city in automobiles and told that their return would be the occasion of a lynching. At one time an armed mob of business men dragged nearly four hundred strikers from 14 their home& or boarding houses, herded them into wait cars, sealed up the d were about to deport masse. The sheriff, ge of this unheard-of stopped it at the la Many men were badly beatings they received. One log- L ger was crippled for life by the brutal treatment accorded him. But the strikers won their ,: demands and conditions were materially improved. dustrial Workers of the World continued to grow in numbers and prestige. This event may be considered the beginning of-the labor movement on Grays Har- ’ bor that the lumber trust sought finally to crush with mob vio- lence on a certain memorable day in Centralia seven years later. BERT F AULKNER Following the Aberdeen American. Lwner. 21 years of age. Member of the Indl ustrial Workers of the World* strike one or two minor clashes since 1917. Was in the hall when raid occurred. Faulkner personally knew occurred. The ldmber workers Grimm, McElfresh and 8 number of othem were usually successful. During , ;boev$zh&d$ the parade. He is an ex- The prosecution used a this period they were quietly great deal of ‘pressure to make this boy turn state’s evidence. He refused stating but effectually spreading One that he would tell nothing but the truth. Big Union propaganda through- At the last moment he was discharged from the case after being held in jail four out the camps and mills in the months. district. Also they were organ- izing their fellow workers in increasing numbers into their union, The lumber trust, smarting under its last defeat, was alarmed and alert. A MASSACRE AND A NEW LAW But no really important event occurred until 1916. At this time the union loggers, organized in the Industrial Workers of the World, had started a drive for membership around Puget Sound. Loggers and mill hands were eager for the message of Industrial Unionism. Meetings were well attended and the senti- ment in favor of the organization was steadily glowing. The A. F. of L. shingle weavers and longshoremen were on strike and had asked the I. W. W. to help them secure free speech in Everett. The ever-watchful lumber interests decided the time to strike had again arrived. The events of “Bloody Sunday” are too well known to need repeating here. Suffice to say that after a summer replete with illegal beatings and jailings five men were. killed in cold blood and forty wounded in a final desperate effort to drive the union out of the city of Everett, Washington. These‘ unarmed loggers were slaughtered and wounded by the gunfire of a gang of business men and plug-uglies of the lumber inter- ests. True to form, the lumber trust had every union man in sight arrested and seventy-four charged with the murder of a gun- man who had been killed by the cross-fire of his own comrades None of the desperadoes who had done the actual murdering was ever prosecuted or even reprimanded. The charge against the members of the Industrial Workers of the World was pressed. The case was tried in court and the Industrialists declared “not ,guilty.” George Vanderveer was attorney for the defense. The lumber interests were infuriated at their defeat, and from this time on the struggle raged in deadly earnest. Almost ,everything from mob law to open assassination had been tried without avail. The execrated One Big Union idea was gaining members and power every day. The situation was truly alarming. Their heretofore trustworthy “wage plugs” were showing unmis- takable symptoms of intelligence. Workingmen were waking up. They were, in appalling numbers, demanding the right to live like men. Something must be done-something new and drastic- to split asunder this on-coming phalanx of industrial power. But the gun-man-and-mob method was discarded, temporarily at least, in favor of the machinations of lumber trust tools in the law making bodies. Big Business can make laws as easily Las it can break them-and with as little impunity. So the notorious Washington “Criminal Syndicalism” law was devised. This law, however, struck a snag. The honest-minded governor of the state, recognizing ’ its transparent character and far-reaching effects, promptly vetoed the measure. After the death of Governor Lister the criminal syndicalism law was passed, however, by the next State Legislature. Since that time it has been used against the American Federation of Labor, the IndustriaI Workers of the ‘World, the Socialist Party and even common citizens not affili- ated with any of these organizations. The criminal syndicalism law registers the high water mark of reaction. It infringes more ,on the liberties of the people than any of the labor-crushing laws that blackened Russia during the dynasty of the Romanoffs. It .would disgrace the anti-Celestial legislation of Hell.

THE 8 HOUR DAY AND “TREASON” Nineteen hundred and seventeen was an eventful year. It was then the greatest strike in the history of the lumber industry occurred-the strike for the eight hour day. For years the log- ger and mill hand had fought against the unrestrained greed of the lumber interests. Step by step, in the face of fiercest op- position, they had fought for the right to live like men; and step by step they had been gaining. Each failure or success had shown them the weakness or strength of their union. They had been consolidating their forces as well as learning how to use them. The lumber trust had been making huge profits the while, ‘but the lumber workers were still working ten hours or more and 16 As soon as this country had taken its stand with the allied imperialists the price of lumber, needed for war purposes, was boosted to sky-high figures. From $16.00 to $116.00 per thou- sand feet is quite a jump; but recent disclosures shdw that the Government paid as high as $1200.00 per thousand for spruce that private concerns were pur- chasing for less than one tenth of that sum. Gay parties with plenty of wild women and hard drink are alleged to have been instrumental in enabling the “patriotic” lumber trust to put these little deals across. Due to the duplicity of this same bunch of predatory gentlemen the air- plane and ship building program MRS. ELMER SMITH AND of the United States turned out BABY GIRL Mrs. Elmer Smith is the cultured daugb- to be a scandal instead of a suc- ter of a Washington judge. Since Elmer Smith got into trouble mang efforts have cess. Out of 21,000 feet of been made to induce his wife to leave hm. spruce delivered to a Massachu- Mrs. Smith prefers, however, to stick with her rebel lawyer whom she loves and ad- setts factory, inspectors could miRS. only pass 400 feet as fit for use. Keep these facts and figures in mind when you read about what happened to the “disloyal” lumber workers during the war-and afterwards. Discontent had been smouldering in the woods for a long time. It was soon fanned to a flame by the brazen profiteering of the lumber trust. The loggers had been biding their time -rather sullenly it is true- for the day when the wrongs they had endured so patiently and so long might be rectified. Their quarrel with the lumber interests was an old one. The time was becoming propitious. In the early summer of 1917 the strike started. Sweeping through the short log country it spread like wild-fire over nearly all the Northwestern lumber districts. The tie-up was practically complete. The industry was paralyzed. The lumber trust, its mouth drooling in anticipation of the many millions it was about to make in profits, shattered high heaven with its cries of rage. Immediately its loyal henchmen in the Wilson administration rushed to the rescue. Profiteering might be condoned, moralized 17 over or winked at, but militant labor unionism was a menace to the government and the prosecution of the war. It must be crush- ed. For was it not treacherous and treasonable for loggers to strike for living conditions when Uncle Sam needed the wood and the lumber interests the money? So Woodrow Wilson and his coterie of political troglodytes from the slave-owning districts of the old South, started out to teach militant labor a lesson. Cor- poration lawyers were assembled. Indictments were made to order. The bloodhounds of the Department of “Justice” were unleashed. Grand Juries of “patriotic” business men were im: paneled and did their expected work not wisely but too well. All the gun-men and stool-pigeons of Big Business got busy. And the opera bouffe of “saving our form of government” was staged.

INDUSTRIAL HERETICS AND THE WHITE TERROR For a time it seemed as though the strikers would surely be defeated. The onslaught was terrific, but the loggers held out bravely. Workers were beaten and jailed by the hundreds. Men were herded like cattle in blistering “bull-pens,” to be freed after months of misery, looking more like skeletons than human beings. Ellensburg and Yakima will never be forgotten in Washington. One logger was even burned to death while locked in a small iron- barred shack that had been dignified with the title of “jail.” In the Northwest even the military were used and the bayonet of the soldier could be seen glistening beside the cold steel of the hired thug. Union halls were raided in all parts of the land. Thousands of workers were deported. Dozens were tarred and feathered and mobbed. Some were even taken out in the dead of night and hanged to railway bridges. Hundreds were convicted of imaginary offenses and sent to prison for terms of from one to twenty years. Scores were held in filthy jails for as long as twenty-six months awaiting trial. The Espionage Law, which never convicted a spy, and the Criminal Syndicalism Laws, which never convicted a criminal, were used savagely and with full force against the workers in their struggle for better conditions. By means of newspaper-made war hysteria the profiteers of Big Business entrenched themselves in public opinion. By posing as “100% Americans” (how stale and trite the phrase has become from their long misuse of it!) these social parasites sought to convince the nation that they, and not the truly American unionists whos,e backs they were trying to break, were working for the best interests of the American people. Our form of gov- ernment, forsooth, must be saved. Our institutions must be rescued from the clutch of the “reds.” Thus was the war-frenzy of their dupes lashed to madness and the guarantees of the con- stitution suspended as far as the working class was concerned. So all the good, wise and noisy men of the nation were in- duced by diverse means to cry out against the strikers and their union. The worst passions of respectable people were appealed to. The hoarse blood-cry of the mob was raised. It was echoed 18 and re-echoed from press and DUhi it. The very air quivered from its reverberations, Lynch- ing parties became “respecta- ble.” Indictments were flourish- ed. Hand-cuffs flashed. The clinking feet of workers going to prison rivaled the sound of the soldiers marching to war., And while all this was happening, a certain paunchy little Enghsh * Jew with moth-eaten hair and i:i-,. ‘_ blotchy jowls-the accredited .,. ;’ head of agreat labor union-glar- ed through his thick spectacles and nodded his perverse approv- ‘: al. But the lumber trust licked ‘. its fat lips and leered at its swol- ; len dividends. All was well and i the world was being made “safe for democracy!” - 4 AUTOCRACY VS. UNIONISM BRITT SMITH A merican. Logger. 88 yew8 old. Had tol- wed the woods for twenty years. Smith This unnrecedented struggle !Z.^rl^ %.I^ “lo”V l .J ‘uome& in the hall that WBB raided was really a-test of strength be- and was ee ~retary of the Union. When the mob broke into the jail and seized Wesley tween industrial autocracy and Everest tc I torture and lynch him they cried, “We’ve got Britt Smith!” Smith militant unionism. The former was the man they wanted and it was to ‘was determined to restore the break his neck that ropes were carried in, the “parade.“. Not until Everest’s body palmy days of peonage for all was brought back to the city jail was it discovered that the mob had lynched the time to come, the latter to fight wrong man. to the last ditch in spite of hell and high water. The lumber trust sought to break the strike of the loggers and destroy their organization. In the ensuing fracas the lumber barons came out only second best-and they were bad losers. After the war-fever had died down-one year after the signing of the Armistice- they were still trying in Centralia to attain their ignoble ends by means of mob violence. But at this time the ranks of the strikers were unbroken.. The heads of the loggers were “bloody but unbowed.” Even at last, when compelled to yield to privation and brute force and return to work, they turned defeat to victory by “carrying the strike onto the job.” As a body they refused to work more than eight hours. Secretary of War Baker and President Wilson had both vainly urged the lumber interests to grant the eight hour day. The determined industrialists gained this demand, after all else had failed, by simply blowing a whistle when the time was up. Most of their other demands were won as well. In spite of even the Disque despotism, mattresses, clean linen and shower baths were reluctantly granted as the fruits of victory. But even as these lines are written the jails and prisons of America are filled to overflowing with men and women whose only crime is loyalty to the working class. The war profiteers .are still wallowing in luxury. None has ever been placed behind the bars. Before he was lynched in Butte, Frank Little had said, “I stand for the solidarity of labor.” That was enough. The vials of wrath were poured on his head for no other reason. And for no other reason was the hatred of the employing class directed at the valiant hundreds who now rot in prison for longer terms than those meted out to felons. William Haywood and Eugene Debs are behind steel bars today for the same cause. The boys at Centralia were conspired against because they too stood “for the solidarity of labor.” It is simply lying and camouflage to attempt to trace such persecutions to any other source. These .are things America will be ashamed of when she comes to her senses. Such grewsome events are paralleled in no country save the Germany of Kaiser Wilhelm .or the Russia of the Czar. This picture of labor persecution in free America-terrible but true-will serve as a background for the dramatic history of the events leading up to the climacteric tragedy at Centralia on Armistice Day, 1919.

WHILE IN WASHINGTON . . . All over the state of Washington the mobbing, jailing and tar and feathering of workers continued the order of the day until long after the cessation of hostilities in Europe. The organiza- tion had always urged and disciplined its members to avoid vio- lence as an unworthy weapon. Usually the loggers have left their halls to the mercy of the mobs when they knew a raid was con- templated. Centralia is the one exception. Here the outrages heaped upon them could be no longer endured. In Yakima and Sedro Woolley, among other places in 1918, union men were stripped of their clothing, beaten with rope ends and hot tar applied to the bleeding flesh. They were then driven half naked into the woods. A man was hanged at night in South Montesano about this time and another had been tarred and feathered. As a rule the men were taken unaware before being treated in this manner. In one instance a stationary delegate of the Industrial Workers of the World received word that he was to be “decorated” and rode out of town on a rail. He slit a pillow open and placed it in the window with a note attached stating that he knew of the plan ; would be ready for them, and would gladly supply his own feathers. He did not leave town either on a rail or otherwise. In Seattle, Tacoma and many other towns, union halls and print shops were raided and their contents destroyed or burned. In the former city in 1919, men, women and children were knocked- insensible by policemen and detectives riding up and down the sidewalks in automobiles, striking to right and left with “billy” and night stick as they went. These were accompanied by auto 20 IuCKeL hose played on their drenched and shivering bodies. “Breech of iail discinline” was the reason given for this “cruel and unus- ual” form of lumber trust nun- LOREN ------KU~lLKlS

I”‘LILI”L1”.iahmont American. Logger. 19 Ys3ll-G nld Loren’s 7Aren In Aberdeen and Montesano money three ye-&s. After his there were several raids and ~%K’YZ w*P....” “___+hc= ____”nnlv support manv denortations of the tar and for his father and me and the three- y0Wlg- Cl^_ “11tz.^^^^ .9 n.t.^l‘,C F^AL,‘LILll er was a sawyer in a feather *variety. In Aberdeen mill and died of tubxcuwamF.-..1--:- alar-I*-_ -na aeei- dent had broken his strer+h; Th is boy, in the fall of 1917 during a “pa- the weakest of the zr.en on tmu. was driven I ne by the unsal zakable “third degree” triotic” parade, the battered hall zz,I,ULel.ellI_Z~A....J in the city jail. One of the of the union loggers was again lumber _ trust. lawyeI? i was in the jail at the tmxe KoOerts siane d his so-called “eon- forcibly entered in the absence fesqion.” “Tell him I^LY ,,t..r,...:4 0rar.rr.sI+-llirrr,” said of its owners. Furniture, office a prosecutor to Vxnderveer, when I Eoberts left the witr NY,S srand.’ “You cur !” replied fixtures, Victrola and books were the defense attorney :-.‘. -y 10~., voice, “you dumped into the street and de- dition.”know who &Jm~14is respon&ble wr- ---for this boy’s con- stroyed. In the town of Centra- ha, about a year before the tragedy, the Tjnion Secretary was kidnapped and taken into the woods by a mob of well dressed business men. He was made to “run the gauntlet” and severely beaten. There was a strong sentiment in favor of lynching him on the spot, but one of the mob objected saying it would be “too raw.” The victim was then escorted to the outskirts of the city and warned not to return under pain of the usual penalty. On more than one occa- sion loggers who had expressed themselves in favor of the In- dustrial Workers of the World, were found in the morning dang- ling from trees in the neighborhood. No explanation but that of “suicide” was ever offered. The whole story of the atrocities perpetrated during these days of the White Terror, in all prob- ability, will never be published, The criminals are well known but their influence is too powerful to ever make it esnedient to expose their crimes. Besides, who would care to get a gentle- man in trouble for killing a mere “wobbly”? The few instances noted above will, however, give the reader some slight idea of the grewsome events that were leading inevitably to that grim day in Ccntralia in November, 1919.

WEATHERING THE STORM Through it all the industrialists clung to their Red Cards and to the One Big Union for which they had sacrificed so much. Time after time, with incomparable patience, they would refur- nish and reopen their beleaguered halls, heal up the wounds of rope, tar or “billy” and proceed with the work of organization as though nothing had happened. With union cards or credentials hidden in their heavy shoes they would meet secretly in the woods at night. Here they would consult about members who had been mobbed, jailed or killed, about caring for their families -if they had any-about carrying on the work of propaganda and laying plans for the future progress of their union. Perhaps they would take time to chant a rebel song or two in low voices. Then, back on the job again to “line up the slaves for the New Society !” Through a veritable inferno of torment and persecution these men had refused to be driven from the woods or to give up their union-the Industrial Workers of the World. Between the two dreadful alternatives of peonage or persecution they chose the iatter-and the lesser. Can you imagine what their peonage must have been like? SINISTER CENTRALIA But Centralia was destined to be the scene of the most dramatic portion of the struggle between the entrenched inter- ests and the unio,n loggers. Here the long persecuted industrial- ists made a stand for their lives and fought to defend their own, thus giving the glib-tongued lawyers of the prosecution the op portunity of accusing them of “wantonly murdering unoffending paraders” on Armistice Day. Centralia in appearance is a creditable small American city -the kind of city smug people show their friends with pride from the rose-scented tranquility of a super-six in passage. The streets are wide and clean, the buildings comfortable, the lawns and shade trees attractive. Centralia is somewhat of a coquette but she is as sinister and cowardly as she is pretty. There is a shudder lurking in every corner and a nameless fear sucks the sweetness out of every breeze. Song birds warble at the out- skirts of the town but one is always haunted by the cries of the ii;rsan beings who have been tortured and killed within her con- k red-faced business man motors leisurely down the wet street. He shouts a laughing greeting to a well dressed group at the curb who respond in kind. But the roughly dressed lum- 22 berworkers drop their glances in passing one another. The Fear is always upon them. As these lines are written several hundred discontented shingle-weavers are threatened with deportation if they dare to strike. They will not strike, for they know too well the consequences. The man-hunt of a few months ago is not forgotten and the terror of it grips their hearts whenever they think of opposing the will of the Moloch that dominates their every move. Around Centralia are wooded hills ; men have been beaten beneath them and lynched from their limbs. The beautiful Che- halis River flows near by; Wesley Everest was left dangling from one of its bridges. But Centralia is provokingly pretty for all that. It is small wonder that the lumber trust and its henchmen wish to keep it all for themselves. Well tended roads lead in every direction, bordered with clearings of worked’ out camps and studded with occasional tree stumps of great age and truly prodiguous size. At intervals are busy saw mills with thousands of feet of odorous lumber piled up in ‘orderly rows. In all directions stretches the pillared im- mensity of the forests. The vistas through the trees seem en- chanted rather than real-unbelievably green and of form and depth that remind one of painted settings for a Maeterlinck fable rather than matter-of-fact timber land. THE HIGH PRIESTS OF LABOR HATRED Practically all of this land is controlled by the trusts ; much of it by the Eastern Railway and Lumber Company, of which F. B. Hubbard is the head. The strike of 1917 almost rrined this worthy gentleman. He has always been a strong advocate of the open shop, but during the last few years he has permitted his rabid labor-hatred to reach the point of fanaticism. This Hub- bard figures prominently in Centralia’s business, social and mob circles. He is one of the moving spirits in the Centralia conspir- acy. The Eastern Railway and Lumber Company, besides large tracts of land, owns saw-mills, coal mines and a railway. The Centralia newspapers are its mouthpieces while the Chamber of Commerce and the Elks’ Club are its general headquarters. The Farmers’ & Merchants’ Bank is its local citadel of power. In charge of this bank is a sinister character, one Uhlman, a Ger- man of the old school and a typical Prussian junker. At one time he was an officer in the German army but at present is a “100% American” -an easy metamorphosis for a Prussian in these days. His native born “brother-at-arms” is George Dysart whose son led the posses in the man-hunt that followed the shooting. In Centralia this bank and its Hun dictator dominates the financial, political and social activities of the community. Business men, lawyers, editors, doctors and local authorities all kow-tow to the institution and its Prussian president. And woe be to any who dare do otherwise ! The power of the “interests” is a vengeful power and will have no other power before it. Even the mighty arm of the law becomes palsied in its presence. 2:: Dermitted to be introduced as evidence of tbeFeonspiracy to raid the new hall. Judge Wilson didn’t want the jury to know anything about this event. The Farmers’ & Merchants’ Bank is the local instrumentality of the invisible government that holds the nation in its clutch. l l Kaiser Uhlman has more influence than the city mayor and more power than the police force. The law has always been a little thing to him and his clique. The inscription on the shield of this bank is said to read “To hell with the Constitution; this is Lewis County.” As events will show, this inspiring maxim has been faithfully adhered to. One of the mandates of this delectable nest of highbinders is that no headquarters of the Union of the lumber workers shall ever be permitted within the sacred pre- cincts of the city of Centralia.

THE LOVED AND HATED UNION HALL Now the loggers, being denied the luxury of home and family life, have but three places they can call “home.” The bunkhouse in the camp, the cheap rooming house in town and the Union Hall. This latter is by far the best loved of all. It is here the men can gather around a crackling wood fire, smoke their pipes and warm their souls with the glow of comradeship, Here they can, between jobs or after work, discuss the vicissitudes of their daily lives, read their books and magazines and sing their songs of solidarity, or merely listen to the “tinned” humor or harmony of the much- prized Victrola. Also they here attend to affairs of their Union -line up members, hold business and educational meetings and a weekly “open forum.” Once in awhile a rough and wholesome “smoker” is given. The features of this great event are planned for weeks in advance and sometimes talked about for months afterwards, 24

far’on this occasion and it got the surprise of its life. Four of its misguided dupes paid for their lawlessness with their lives, and a number of others were wounded. There has not since been a raid on a union hall in the Northwestern District. It is well that workingmen and women throughout the coun- try should understand the truth about the Armistice Day tragedy in Centralia and the circumstances that led up to it. *But in order to know why the hall was raided it is necessary first to under- stand why this, and all similar halls, are hated by the oligarchies of the woods. The issue contested is whether the loggers have the right to organize themselves into a union, or whether they must remain chattels-mere hewers of wood and helpless in the face of the rapacity of their industrial overlords-or whether they have the right to keep open their halls and peacefully to conduct the af- fairs of their union. The lumber workers contend that they are entitled by law to do these things and the employers assert that, law or no law, they shall not do so. In other words, it is a question of whether labor organization shall retain its foothold in the lumber industry or be “driven from the woods.” .

PIONEERS OF UNIONISM It is hard for workers in most of the other industries-es- pecially in the East-to understand the problems, struggles and aspirations of the husky and unconquerable lumber workers of the Northwest. The reason is that the average union man takes his union for granted. He goes to his union meetings, discusses the affairs of his craft, industry or class, and he carries his card -all as a matter of course. It seldom enters his mind that the privileges and benefits that surround him and the protection he enjoys are the result of the efforts and sacrifices of the nameless thousands of pioneers that cleared the way. But these unknown heroes of the great struggle of the classes did precede him with their loyal hearts and strong hands ; otherwise workers now or- ganized would have to start the long hard battle at the begin- ning and count their gains a step at a time, just as did the early champions of industrial organization, or as the loggers of the West Coast are now doing. The working class owes all honor and respect to the first men who planted the standard of labor solidarity on the hostile frontier of unorganized industry. They were the men who made possible all things that came after and all things that are still to come. They were the trail blazers. It is easier to follow them than to have gone before them-or with them. They established the outposts of unionism in the wilderness of Industrial autocracy. Their voices were the first to proclaim the burning message of Labor’s power, of Labor’s mission and of Labor’s ultimate eman- cipation. Their breasts were the first to receive the blows of the enemy ; their unprotected bodies were shielding the countless 26

As might be expected the I. W. W. Halls in Washington were hated by the lumber barons with a deep and undying hatred. Union halls were a standing challenge to their hitherto undisputed right to the complete domination of the forests. Like the block- houses of early days, these humble meeting places were the out- posts of a new and better order planted in the stronghold of the old. And they were hated accordingly. The thieves who had invaded the resources of the nation had long ago seized the woods and still held them in a grip of steel. They were not going to tolerate the encroachments of the One Big Union of the lumber workers. Events will prove that they did not hesitate at any- thing to achieve their purposes.

THE FIRST CENTRALIA HALL In the year 1918 a union hall stood on one of the side streets in Centralia. It was similar to the halls that have just been described. This was not, however, the hall in which the Armistice Day tragedy took place. You must always remember that there were two halls raided in Centralia; one in 1918 and another in 1919. The loggers did not defend the first hall and many of them were manhandled by the mob that wrecked it. The Iog- gers did defend the second and were given as reward a hanging, a speedy, fair and impartial conviction and sentences of from 25 to 40 years. No member of the mob has ever been punished or even taken to task for his misdeed. Their names are known to everybody. They kiss their wives and babies at night and go’ to church ‘on Sundays. People tip their hats to them on the street. Yet they are a greater menace to the institutions of this country than all the “reds” in the land. In a world where Mam- mon is king the king can do no wrong. But the question of “right” or “wrong” did not concern the lumber interests when they raided the Union hall in 1918. “Yes, we raided the hall, what are you going to do about it,” is the position they take in the matter. During the 1917 strike the two lumber trust papers in Cen- tralia, the “Hub” and the “Chronicle” were bitter in their de- nunciation of the strikers. Repeatedly they urged that most . drastic and violent measures be taken by the authorities and “citi- zens” to break the strike, smash the union and punish the strik- ers. The war-frenzy was at its height and these miserable sheets went about their work like Czarist papers inciting a pogrom. The lumber workers were accused of “disloyalty,” “treason,” “an- archy”-anything that would tend to make their cause un- popular. The Abolitionists were spoken about in identical terms before the civil war. As soon as the right atmosphere for their crime had been created the employers struck and struck hard. It was in April, 1918. Like many other cities in the land Centralia was conducting a Red Cross drive. Among the features of this event were a bazaar and a parade. The profits of the lumber trust were soaring to dizzy heights at this time and their patriotism was proportionately exalted. 28 ual brand of hypo- critical and fervid speechmaking. The flag was waved, the Government was lauded and the Constitution prais- ed. Then, after the war-like procliv- ities of the stay-at- home heroes had been sufficiently worked upon ; flag, x*

Government and AVALON HOTEL, CENTRALIA Constitution were From this point Elsie Hornbeck claimed she identified Eugene forgottenlong Barrett in the open window with a rifle. Afterwards she ad- enough for the mitted that her identification was based only on a photograph gang to go down shown her by the prosecution. This yotmg lady nearly fainted. the street and raid on the witnesa stand while trying to patch her absurd story the “wobbly” hall. together. Dominating the festivities was the figure of F. B. Hubbard, at that time President of the Employers’ Association of the State, of Washington. This is neither Hubbard’s first nor last appear- ance as a terrorist and mob-leader-usually behind the scenes, however, or putting in a last minute appearance. THE 1918 RAID It had been rumored about town that the Union Hall was to, be wrecked on this day but the loggers at the hall were of’ the opinion that the business men, having driven their Secretary out of town a short time previously, would not dare to perpetrate another atrocity so soon afterwards. In this they were sadly mistaken. Down the street marched the parade, at first presenting no unusual appearance. The Chief of Police, the Mayor and the Governor of the State were given places of honor at the head of the procession, Company G of the National Guard and a gang. of broad-cloth hoodlums disguised as “Elks” made up the main body of the marchers. But the crafty and unscrupulous Hubbard had laid his plans in advance with characteristic cunning. The parade, like a scorpion, carried its sting in the rear. Along the main avenue went the guardsmen and the gentle- men of the Elks Club. So far nothing extraordinary had hap- pened. Then the procession swerved to a side street. This must be the right thing for the line of march had been arranged by the Chamber of Commerce itself, A couple of blocks more and the parade had reached the intersection of First Street and Tower Avenue. What happened then the Mayor and Chief of Police probably could not have stopped even had the Governor himself’ 23 the other side ‘of the county line. Since that time the wrecked hall has remained tenantless and unrepaired. Grey and gaunt like a house in battle-scarred * Belgium, it stands a mute testimony of the labor-hating ferocity of the lumber trust. Repeated efforts have since been made to ‘destroy the remains with fire. The defense had tried without avail to introduce a photograph of the ruin as evidence to prove that the second hall was raided in a similar manner on Armistice .Day, 1919. Judge Wilson refused to permit the jury to see either the photographs or the hall. But in case of another trial . . .? 30

from the down-trodden,-which is saying a good deal. The “in- terests” studied the young law- yer carefully for awhile and soon decided that he could be neither bullied or bought. So they de- termined to either break his spirit or to break his neck. Smith is at present in prison charged with murder. This is how it happened : Smith established his office in the First Guarantee Bank Build- ing which was quite the proper thing to do. Then he began to handle law suits for wage-earn- ers, which was altogether the re- verse. Caste rules in Centralia, and Elmer Smith was violating its most sacred mandatories by giving the “working trash” the benefit of his talents instead of people really worth while. Warren 0. Grimm, who was afterwards shot while trying to break into the Union Hall with the mob, once cautioned Smith WESLEY EVEREST of the folly and danger of such -IDD__.T.#womr _dmmriran-...- _._-.. I_._lnlrl W*a.hino+nn..--..... D_.. _._nin, -_2 canrse.------. “You’ll get along all neer stock). Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917. A returned soldier. right,” said he, “if fou will come Earnest. sincere, quiet, he was the “Jimmy in with us.” Then he contin- Hiaains” of the Centralia branch of the _3 _ Lumberworkers Union. Everest was mis- uea : taken for Britt Smith, the Union WXl-&¶~Y. whom the mob had ntsrt~~.-- “_”fir>+ to lynch. “How would you feel if one of Tang_.. of _terrorinti and unmercifully manhandled. Later-at vour clients would come up to night-he was taken from the city jail and $ou in public, slap you on the hanned t.a a bridge. In the automobile. on the way to the lym+:-- h- --D ‘3.. back and say ‘Hello, Elmer?’ ” sexed bv a human fien Centralia business man- .____ _-______“Very proud,” answered the on his helpless victim. Even the lynchers young lawyer. were forced to admit ths Lt -Lverecct was the - most “dead game” man t hey had ever seen. Some months previous Smith had taken a case for an I. W. W. logger. He won it. Other cases in which workers needed legal advice came to him. He took them. A young girl was working at the Centralia “Chronicle”. She was receiving a week- ly wage of three dollars which is in defiance of the minimum wage law of the state for women. Smith won the case. Also he col- lected hundreds of dollars in back wages for workers whom the companies had sought to defraud. Workers in the clutches of loan sharks were extricated by means of the bankruptcy laws, hitherto only used by their masters. An automobile firm was .making a practice of replacing Ford engines with old ones when 32

. a machine was brought in for repairs. One of the victims brought his case to Smith. and a lawsuit followed. This was an unheard- of proceeding, for heretofore such little business tricks had been kept out of court by common understanding. A worker, formerly employed by a subsidiary of the Eastern Lumber & Railway Company, had been deprived of his wages on a technicality of the law by the corporation attorneys. This man had a large family and hard circumstances were f&xed upon them by this misfortune. One of his little girls died from what the doctor called malnutrition-plain starvation. Smith filed suit and openly stated that the lawyers of the corporation were re- sponsible for the death of the child. The indignation of the business and professional element blazed to white heat. A suit for libel and disbarment proceedings were started against him. Nothing could be done in this direction as Smith had not only justice but the law on his side. His enemies were waiting with great impatience for a more favorable opportunity to strike him down. Open threats were beginning to be heard against him. A Union lecturer came to town. The meeting was well atr tended. A viglance committee of provocateurs and business men was in the audience. At the close of the lecture those gentle- men started to pass the signal for action. Elmer Smith sauntered down the aisle, shook hands with the speaker and told him he would walk to the train with him. The following morning the door to Smith’s office was orna- mented with a cardboard sign. It read: “Are you an Amer- ican? You had better say so. Citizens’ Committee.” This was lettered in lead pencil. Across the bottom were scrawled these words : “No more I. W. W. .meetings for you.” In 1918 an event occurred which served further to tighten the noose about the stubborn neck of the young lawyer. On this occasion the terrorists of the city perpetrated another shameful crime against the working class-and the law. BLIND TOM-A BLEMISH ON AMERICA Tom Lassiter made his living by selling newspapers at a little stand on a street corner. Tom is blind, a good soul and well liked by the loggers. But Tom has vision enough to see that there is something wrong with the hideous capitalist system we live under; and so he kept papers on sale that would help en- lighten the workers. Among these were the “Seattle Union Rec- ord, ” “The Industrial Worker” and “Solidarity”. To put it plain- ly, Tom was a thorn in the side of the local respectability because of his modest efforts to make people think. And his doom had also been sealed. Early in June the newsstand was broken into and all his clothing, literature and little personal belongings were taken to a vacant lot and burned. A warning sign was left on a short pole stuck in the ashes. The message, “You leave town in 24 hours, U. S. Soldiers, Sailors and Marines,” was left on the table in his room. 33 With true Wobbly determination, Lassiter secured a new stock of papers and immediately re-opened his little stand. About this time a Centralia business man, J. H. Roberts by name, was heard to say “This man (Lassiter) is within his legal rights and if we can’t do anything by law we’ll take the law into our own hands.” This is precisely what happened. On the afternoon of June 30th, Blind Tom was crossing Tower Avenue with hesitating steps when, without warning, two business men seized his groping arms and yelled in his ear, “We’ll get you out of town this time!” Lassiter called for help. The good Samaritan came along in the form of a brute-faced creature known as W. R. Patton, a rich property owner of the city. This -Christian gentleman sneaked up behind the blind man and lunged him forcibly into a waiting Oakland automobile. The machine is owned by Cornelius McIntyre who is said to have been one of the kidnapping party. “Shut up or I’ll smash your mouth so you caq’t yell,” said one of his assailants as Lassiter was forced, still screaming for help, into the car. Turning to the driver one of the party said, “‘Step on her and let’s get out of here.” About this time Con- stable Luther Patton appeared on the scene. W. R. Patton walked over to where the constable stood and shouted to the bystanders, “We’ll arrest the first person that objects, interferes or gets too loud.” “A good smash on the jaw would do more good,” suggested the kind-hearted official. “Well, we got that one pretty slick and now there are two more we have to get,” stated W. R. Patton, a short time after- wards. Blind Tom was dropped helpless in a ditch just over the county line. He was picked up by a passing car and eventually made his way to Olympia, capital of the state. In about a week he was back in Centralia. Btit before he could again resume his paper selling he was arrested on a charge of “criminal syndi- calism.” He is now awaiting conviction at Chehalis. Before his arrest, however, Lassiter engaged Elmer Smith ds his attorney. Smith appealed to County Attorney Herman Allen for protection for his client. After a half-hearted effort to locate the kidnappers-who were known to everybody-this official gave up the task saying he was “Too busy to bother with the affair, and, besides, the offense was only “third degree assault” which is punishable with a fine of but one dollar and costs. The young lawyer did not waste any more time with the ,County authorities. Instead he secured sworn statements of the facts in the case and submitted them to the Governor. These were duly acknowledged and placed on file in Olympia. But up to date no actioq has been taken by the executive to prosecute the crimi- nals who committed the crime. “Handle these I. W. W. cases if you want to,” said a local . attorney to Elmer Smith, counsel for one of the banks, “but sooner or later they’re all going to be hanged or deported anyway.” 34 WHERE EARNETT’S RIFLE WAS SUI+POSED TO HAVE I:EEN FOTJND Eugene Barnett was said to have left his rifle under this sign-board as he fled from the scene of the shooting. It would have been much easier to hide a gun in the tall brush in the fore- ground. In rtwlity Rnrnett did not have a rifle on November 11th and WRS never within a’ mile of this place. Prosecutor Cunninghorn said he had “been looking all over for that rifle” when it was turned owr to him by R stool p&on. Strangely enough Cunningham knew the number of the gun before he plnced bands on it, Smith was feathering a nest for himself-feathering it with steel and stone and a possible coil of hempen rope. The shadow of the prison bars was falling blacker on his red head with every passing moment. His fearless championing of the cause of the “under dog” had won him the implacable hatred of his own class. To them his acts of kindness and humanity were nothing less than treason. Smith had been ungrateful to the clique that had offered him every inducement to “come in with us”. A lawyer with a heart is as dangerous as a working man with his brains. Elmer Smith would be punished all right; it would just be a matter of time. The indifference of the County and State authorities re- garding the kidnaping of blind Tom gave the terrorists renewed confidence in the efficacy and “legality” of their methods. Also it gave them a hint as to the form their future depredations were to take, And so, with the implied approval of evers;one worth considering, they went about their plotting with still greater determination and a soothing sense of security.

THE CONSPIRACY DEVELOPS The cessation of hostilities in Europe deprived the gangsters of the cloak of “patriotism” as a cover for their crimes. But this cloak was too convenient to be discarded so easily. “Let the man in uniform do it” was an axiom that had been proved bqth profit- able and safe. Then came the organization of the local post of the American Legion and the now famous Citizens’ Pro’tective League-of which more afterwards. M7ith the signing of the Armistice, and the consequent al- most imperceptib!e lifting of the White Terror that dominated the country, the organization of the loggers began daily to gather strength. The Chamber of Commerce began to growl menac- 35 ingly, the Employers’ Association to threaten and the lumber trust papers to incite open violence. And the American Legion began to function as a “cats paw” for the men behind the scenes. Why should the beautiful city of Centralia tolerate the hated Union hall any longer ? Other halls had been raided, men had been tarred and feathered and deported-no one had ever been punished ! Why should the good citizens of Centralia endure .a lumberworkers headquarters and their despised union itself right in the midst of their peaceful community? Why indeed! The matter appeared simple enough from any angle. So then and there the conspiracy was hatched that resulted in the trag- edy on Armistice Day. But the forces at work to bring about this unhappy conclusion were far from local. Let us see what these were like before the actual details of the conspiracy are - recounted. There were three distinct phases of this campaign to “rid the woods of the agitators.” These three phases dovetail to- gether perfectly. Each one is a perfect part of a shrewdly cal- culated and mercilessly executed conspiracy to commit construct- ive murder and unlawful entry. The diabolical plan itself was designed to brush aside the laws of the land, trample the Con- stitution underfoot and bring about an unparalleled orgy of un- bridled labor hatred and labor repression that would settle the question of unionism for a long time.

THE CONSPIRACY-AND A SNAG First of all comes the propaganda stage with the full force of the editorial virulence of the trust-controlled newspapers di- rected against labor in favor of “law and order,” i. e., the lum- ber interests. All the machinery of newspaper publicity was used to villify the lumber worker and to discredit his Union. Noth- ing was left unsaid that would tend to produce intolerance and hatred or to incite mob violence. This is not only true of Cen- tralia, but of all the cities and towns located in the lumber dis- trict. Centralia happened to be the place where the tree of anti- labor propaganda first bore its ghastly fruit. Space does not permit us to quote the countless horrible things the I. W. W. was supposed to stand for and to be constantly planning to do. Statements from the lips of General Wood and young Roosevelt to the effect that citizens should not argue with Bolshevists but meet them “head on” were very conspicuously displayed on all occasions. Any addle-headed mediocrity, in or out of uniform, who had anything particularly atrocious to say against the labor movement in general or the “radicals” in particular, was afforded every opportunity to do so. The papers were vying with one another in devising effectual, if somewhat informal, means of deal- ing with the “red menace”. Supported by, and partly the result of this barrage of lies, misrepresentation and incitation, came the period of attempted repression by “law”. This was probably the easiest thing of all 36 hwanse------I - the---- o-win -= of- - -Rig Business upon the law-making and law-en- forcing machinery of the nation is incredible. At all events a state’s “criminal syndicalism law” had been conveniently pass- ed and was being applied vigor- ously against union men, A. F. of L. and I. W. W. alike, but chiefly against the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union, No. 500, of the Industrial Workers of the World, the basic lumber industry being the largest in the Northwest and the growing power of the organized lumber- jack being therefore more to be feared. - No doubt the lumber inter- ests had great hope that the exe- cution of these made-to-order laws would clear up the atmos- phere so far as the lumber sit- HIS UNCLE PLANNED IT Dale Hubbard. killed in self-defense IIY uation was concerned. But they We&y Everest. Armistice Day, 1919. F. IS. Hubbard. a lumber baron and uncle of were doomed to a cruel and sur- the dead man. is held to have been the prising disappointment. instinatir of the plot in which his nephew was shot. Hubbard was martyrized by the A number of arrests were lumber trust’s determination “to let the made in Washington, Oregon, men in uniform do it.” Idaho, Montana and even Nevada. Fifty or sixty men all told were arrested and their trials rushed as test cases. During this period from April 25th to October 28th, 1919, the lumber trust saw with chagrin and dismay each of the state cases in turn either won outright by the defendants or else dismissed in the realization that it would be impossible to win them. By October 28th George F. Vanderveer, chief attorney for the defense, de- clared there were not a single member of the I. W. W. in custody in Washington, Idaho or Montana under this charge. In Sea’i- tle, Washington, an injunction was obtained restraining the mayor from closing down the new Union hall in that city under the new law. Thus it appeared that the nefarious plan of the employers and their subservient lawmaking adjuncts, to outlaw the lumber workers Union and to penalize the activities of its members, Tvas to be doom,ed to an ignominious failure. RENEWED EFFORTS-L&AL AND OTHERWISE Furious at the realization of their own impotency the “in- terests” launched forth upon a new campaign. This truly machi- avellian scheme was devised to make it impossible for accused men to secure legal defense of any kind. All labor cases were to be tried simultaneously, thus making it impossible for the de- fendants to secure adequate counsel. George I?. Russell, Secre- 37 tary-Manager of the Washington Employers’ Association, ad- dressed meetings over the state urging all Washington Prosecuting Attorneys to organize that this end might be achieved. It is re- ported that Governor Hart, of Washington, looked upon the scheme with favor when it was brought to his personal attention by Mr. Russell. However, the fact remains that the lumber trust was los- ing and that it would have to devise even more drastic measures if it were to hope to escape the prospect of a very humiliating defeat. And, all the while the organization of the lumber work- ers continued to grow. In Washington the situation was becoming more tense, mo- mentarily. Many towns in the heart of the lumber district had passed absurd criminal syndicalism ordinances. These prohibited membership in the I. W. W.; made it unlawful to rent premises to the organization or to circulate its literature. The Employers’ Association had boasted that it was due to its efforts that these ordinances had been passed. But still they were faced with the provocative and unforgetable fact, that the I. W. W. was no more dead than the cat with the proverbial nine lives. Where halls had been closed or raided the lumber workers were trans- acting their union affairs right on the job or in the bunkhouses, just as though nothing had happened. What was more deplor- able a few Union halls were still open and doing business at the same old stand. Centralia was one of these ; drastic measures must be applied at once or loggers in other localities might be encouraged to open halls also. As events prove these measures were taken-and they were drastic.

THE EMPLOYERS SHOW THEIR FANGS That the Employers’ Association was insiduously preparing its members for action suitable for the situation is evidenced by the following quotations from the official bulletin addressed privately “to Members of the Employers’ Association of Wash- ington”. Note them carefully; they are published as “sugges- tions to members” over the written signature of George F. Rus- sell, Secretary-Manager: June 25th, 19X-“Provide a penalty for idleness. . . . Com- mon labor now works a few days and then loafs to spend the money earned. . . . Active prosecution of the I. W. W. and other radicals.” April 30th, 1919.-“Keep business out of the control of radi- cals and I. W. W. . . . Overcome agitation. . . . Closer co-oper- ation between employers and employes. . . . Suppress the agita- tors. . . . . Hang the Bolshevists.” May 31st, 1919-“If the agitators were taken care of we would have very little trouble. . . . Propaganda to counteracr radicals and overcome agitation. . . . Put the I. W. W. in jail.” June 30th, 1919.-“Make some of the Seattle papers print the truth. . . . Get rid of the I. W. W.‘S.‘~ 33 July 2nd, 1919.-“Educate along the line of the three R’s and the golden rule, economy and self denial. . a . Import Jap- anese labor. . . . Import Chl- nese labor.” July 31st, 1919.-“Deport about ten Russians in this com- munity.” August 31st, 1919.e “Per- sonal contact between employer and employe, stringent treat- ment of the I. W. W.” October 15th, 1919.--“There are many I. W. W.‘s-mostly in the logging camps. . . , ” October 31st, 1919.-(A lit- tle over a week before the Cen- tralia raid.) -“Run your busi- ness or quit. . . . Busmess men $ j :-..) and tax payers of Vancouver, Lb 4 Washington, have organized the Loyal Citizens’ P r 0 t e c t i v e _ nrf.T1l?Iz ?TcE&FRESEI A tientmlls drucgst. klis wife warned ue; O]?POS ed to Bolshevik him not to march to the anion headquartefl because “she knew he’d get hurt.” Mel!% ;he Solviet Form of govern fresh is the man said to have been shot and in f ‘aver of the open inside the hall wyhz ;h&,mb burst through * * . Jail the radicals ant de%rt them. . . . Since tile Armistice these radiccals have started Gn n,..:, 111 QgaIII. fi\hTTWlYUl TT m’T70IVV COMMUNITI: ES IN WASHINGTON AL- LOW I. W, W. HEAD( XJARTERS.” (!!!!) December 31st, 1919.--” Get rid bf all the I. W. W, a1nd all other un-American organizations. . . . Deport the radicals or use the rope as at Centralia. Until we get rid of the I. W. W. and radicals we don’t expect to do much in this country. . . . Keep cleaning up on the I. W. W. . . , Don’t let it die down. . . . Keep up public sentiment. . . ,” These few choice significant morsels of one hundred per cent (on the dollar) Americanism are quoted almost at random from the private bulletins of the officials of the Iron Heel in the state of Washington. Here you can read their sentiments in their own words ; you can see how dupes and hirelings were coached to perpetrate the crime of Centralia, and as many other similiar crimes as they could get away with. Needless to say these il- luminating lines were not intended for the perusal of the work- ing class. But now that we have obtained them and placed them before your eyes you can draw your own conclusion. There are many, many more records germane to this case that we would like to place before you, but the Oligarchy has closed its steel jaws upon them and they are at present inaccessible. Men are still afraid to tell the truth in Centralia. Some day the workers may learn the whole truth about the inside workings of the Cen- tralia conspiracy. Be that as it may the business interests of the Northwest lumber country stand bloody handed and doubly damned, black with guilt and foul with crime ; convicted before the bar of public opinion, by their own statements and their own acts. FAILURE AND DESPERATION Let us see for a moment how the conspiracy of the lumber barons operated to achieve the unlawful ends for which it was designed. Let us see how they were driven by their own failure at intrigue to adopt methods so brutal that they would have disgraced the bead-hunter; how they tried to gain with murder- lust what they had failed to gain lawfully and with public ap- proval. c The campaign of lies and slander inaugurated by their pri- vate newspapers failed to convince the workers of the undesir- ability of labor organization. In spite of the armies of editors and news-whelps assembled to its aid, it served only to lash to a murderous frenzy the low instincts of the anti-labor elements in the community. The campaign of legal repression, admittedly instituted by the Employers’ Association, failed also in spite of the fact that all the machinery of the state from dog-catcher down to Governor was at its beck and call on all occasions and for all purposes. Having made a mess of things with these methods the lum- ber barons threw all scruples to the winds-if they ever hadmT; -threw aside all pretension of living within the law. started out, mad-dog like, to rent, wreck and destroy the last vestige of labor organization from the woods of the Northwest, and furthermore, to hunt down union men and martyrize them with the club, the gun, the rope and the courthouse. It was to cover up their own crimes that the heartless beasts of Big Business beat the tom-toms of the press in order to lash the “patriotism” of their dupes and hirelings into hysteria. It was to hide their own infamy that the loathsome war dance was started that developed perceptibly from uncomprehending belig- gerency into the lawless tumult of mobs, raids and lynchings! And it will be an everlasting blot upon the fair name of America that they were permitted to do so. The Centralia tragedy was the culmination of a long series of unpunished atrocities against labor. What is expected of men , who have been treated as these men were treated and who were denied redress or protection under the law? Every worker in the Northwest knows about the wrongs lumberworkers have en- dured-they are matters of common knowledge. It was common i knowledge in Centralia and adjoining towns that the I. W. W. hall was to be raided on Armistice Day. Yet eight loggers have been sentenced from twenty-five to forty years in prison for the crime of defending themselves from the mob that set out to murder them! But let us see how the conspiracy was operating in Centralia to make the Armistice Day tragedy inevitable. 40 FOURMEN Centralia was fast becom- ing the vortex of the conspiracy that was rushing to its inevit- able conclusion. Event followed event in rapid succession, straws indicating the main current of the flood tide of labor-hatred. The Commercial Club was seeth- ing with intrigue like the court of old France under Catherine de Medici ; only this time it was Industrial Unionism instead of Huguenots who were being marked for a new night of St. h- Bartholomew. The heresy to be uprooted was belief in industrial instead of religious freedom; but the stake and the gibbet were awaiting the New Idea just as thev haa the old. WARREN 0. GRIMM The actions of the lumber Warren 0. Grimm, killed at the beginning of the rush on the I. W. W. hall. At-an- interests were now but thinly other raid on an I. W. W. hall in 1918 veiled and their evil purpose all Grimm was said by witnesses to have been leading the mob, “holding two American too manifest. The connection flags and dancing Iike a whirling dervish.” between the Employers’ Asso- His life-loner friend, Frank Van Gilder. testified: “I stood less than two feet from ciation of the state and its local Grimm when he was shot. He doubled up. representatives in Centralia had put his hands to his stomach and said to become unmistakably evident. me’;~~‘,~d”~~“,~“d’.I;,d~~~t~~,~oU do And behind these loomed the gi- gantic silhouette of the Employers’ Association of the nation- the colossal “invisible government”-more powerful at times than the Government itself. More and more stood out the naked brutal fact that the purpose of all this plotting was to drive the union loggers from the city and to destroy their hall. The names of the men actively interested in this movement came to light in spite of strenuous efforts to keep them obscured. Four of these stand out prominently in the light of the tragedy that followed : George F. Russell, F. B. Hubbard, William Scales and last, but not least, Warren 0. Grimm. The first named, George F. Russell, is a hired Manager for the Washington Employers’ Association, whose membership em- ploys between 75,000 and 80,000 workers in the state. Russell is known to be a reactionary of the most pronounced type. He is an avowed union smasher and a staunch upholder of the open shop principle, which is widely advertised as the “American plan” in Washington. Incidentally he is an advocate of the scheme to import Chineses and Japanese cooley labor as a solution of the “high wage and arrogant unionism” problem. F. B, Hubbard, is a small-bore Russell, differing from his chief only in that his labor hatred is more fanatical and less dis- creet. Hubbard was hard hit by the strike in 19l’i which fact has evidently won him the significant title of “a vicious little anti- labor reptile.” He is the man who helped to raid the 1918 Union Hall in Centralia and who appropriated for himself the stolen desk of the Union Secretary. His nephew Dale Hubbard was shot while trying to lynch Wesley Everest. William Scales is a Centralia business man and a virulent sycophant. He is a parochial replica of the two persons men- tioned above. Scales was in the Quartermaster’s Department down on the border during the trouble with Mexico. Because he was making too much money out of Uncle Sam’s groceries, he was relieved of his duties quite suddenly and dischrirged from the service. He was fortunate in making France instead of Fort Leavenworth, however, and upon his return, became an ardent proselyte of Russell and Hubbard and their worthy cause. Also he continued in the grocery business. Warren 0. Grimm came from a good family and was a small town aristocrat. His brother is city attorney at Centralia. Grimm was a lawyer, a college athlete and a socia1 lion. He had been with the American forces in Siberia and his chief bid for distinction was a noisy dislike for the Workers’ & Peas- 4 ants’ ReDublie of Russia. and the I. W. Iv. which he termed the “American Bolshevik?‘. During the 1918 raid on the Centralia hall Grimm is said to have been dancing around “like a whirling dervish” and waving the Amer- ican flag while the work of de- struction was going on. After- wards he became prominent in the American Legion and was the chief “cats paw” for the lumber interests who were car>- 1 italizing the uniform to gain their own unholy ends. Person- HIZZONER, THE JEDGE ally he was a clean-cut modern young !n his .hlsck. robe: like a bird of prey, man. ne percned nbove me eO”PtrOnm iand ruled always adversely to the cause of 1 abor. AP- SHADOWS CAST BEFORE pointed to try men accused o bf killinn other men whom be had previously eulo~- ized Judlre Jolm M. Wilson did not dis- On June 2&h, the following appoint.* 7,.-I--those who zppomted*-1z ‘L. him. In open notice appeared conspicuously on e”“rL “RrII:er”Ct!r LO,<1 ,111. ---Inill, . “?J.&ere was a time when I thowht you r rulmns the first Dare of the Centralia were due to ipnorancr of the law. That will no longer explain them.“. Hub: * -~ 42 MEETING OF BUSINESS MEN CALLED FOR FRIDAY EVENING “Business men and property owners of Centralia are urged to attend a meeting tomorrow in the Chamber of Commerce rooms to meet the officers of the Employers’ Association of the state to discuss ways and means of bettering the conditions which now confront the business and property interests of the state. George F. Russell, Secretary-Manager, says in his note to business men: ‘We need your advice and your co-operation in support of the movement for the defense of property and property rights. It is the most important question before the public today.’ ” At this meeting Mr. Russell dwelt on the statement that the “radicals” were. better organized than the property interests. Also he pointed out the need of a special organization to protect “rights of property” from the encroachments of all “foes of the govern- ment”. The Non-Partisan League, the Triple Alliance and the A. F. of L. were duly condemned. The speaker then launched out into a long tirade against the Industrial Workers of the World which was characterized as the most dangerous organization in - America and the one most necessary for “good citizens” to crush. Needless to state the address was chock full of 100% Americanism. It amply made up in forcefulness anything it lacked in logic. So the “Citizens’ Protective League” of Centralia was born. From the first it was a law unto itself-murder lust wearing the smirk of respectability-Judge Lynch dressed in a business suit. The advent of this infamous league marks the final ascendency of terrorism over the Constitution in the city of Centralia. The only things still needed were a secret committee, a coil of rope and -an opportunity. F. B. Hubbard was the man selected to pull off the “rough stuff” and at the same time keep the odium of crime from smirch- ing the fair names of the conspirators. He was told to “perfect his own organization”. Hubbard was eminently fitted for hls position by reason of his intense labor-hatred and his aptitude for intrigue. The following day the Centralia Daily Chronicle carried the following significant news item: BUSINESS MEN dF COUNTY ORGANIZE Representatives From Many Communities Attend Meeting in Chamber of Commerce, Presided Over by Secre- tary of Employers’ Association. “The labor situation was thoroughly discussed this afternoon at a meeting held in the local Chamber of Commerce which was attended by representative business men from various parts of Lewis County. George F. Russell, Secretary of the Employers’ Association, of Washington, presided at the meeting. “A temporary organization was effected with F. B. Hubbard, President of the Eastern Railway & Lumber Company, as chair- man. He was empowered to perfect his own organization. A 43 similar meeting will be held in Chehalis in connection----__ with..-___ the_--- noon luncheon of the Citizens’ Club o In that day.” T he city of Centralia be- came alive with gossip and spec- ulation about this new move on the part of the employers. Ev- erybody knew that the whole thing centered around the de- tested hall of the Ilnion loggers. Curiosity seekers began to come in from all parts of the county to have a peep at this hall before it was wrecked. Business men were known to drive their friends from the new to the old hall in order to show what the former would look like in a short time. People in Centralia generally knew for a certainty that the present hall would go the way of SECUTOR” its predecessor. It was just a torney for F. B. question now as to the time and !rests, took ‘iately. He circumstances of the event. “third de- es. Van- Warren 0. Grimm had done trial that wnen Wesley his bit to work up sentiment brutally mutilab against the union loggers ana t;heir hall. Only a month prev- s iously-on Labor Day, 1919,-he had delivered a “labor” speech t.hnt.-_-_-- WIRR..------received - -_- with~--- preat_ enthusiasm by a local clique of business men. Posing as an authoritv_~~. on Bolshevism on account nf“L hin1-10 9ihnrianVIU~~LU‘l corviro,ZYA . I”- GrimmuL&I* .-*. ha__-. d el”aborated on the dangers of this pernicious doctrine. With a great deal‘of dramatic emphasis ho had ~waorl his nndienm t.r, hewaye of the sinister influence of UIIb lllllLA-ll”C..ll II”I.II*“. a1.a ____-.-dustrial Workers of the World.” A few. days before the hall was raided Elnier Smith called at Grimm’s office on legal business. Grimm asked him, by the way, what he thought of his Labor Day speech. Smith replied that he thought it was “rotten” and that he couldn’t agree with Grimm’s anti-labor conception of Americanism. Smith pointed to the deportation of Tom Lassiter as an example of the “Amer- icanism” he considered disgraceful. He said also that he thought free speech was one of the fundamental rights of all citizens. “I can’t arrree with YOU,” replied Grimm. “That’s the nroDer way to treat s&h a fell&.” - THE NEW BLACK HUNDRED On October 19th the Centralia Hub publjshed fitmnlnw-vn Cs~lled to Discuss Handling of Union Hall in 1918. On the fol- lowing day, October ZOth, three weeks before the shooting, this c meeting was held at the hall of i the B&evolent and Protective Order of Elks-the now famous Elks’ Club of Centralia. The avowed purpose of this meeting b was to “deal with the I. W. W. ’ problem.” The chairman was ’ William Scales, at that time Commander of the Centralia Post of the American Legion. The I. W. W. Hall was the chief topic of discussion. F. B. Hub- bard opened up by saying that the I. W. W. was a menace and should be driven out of town. Chief of Police Hughes, however, cautioned them against such a course. He is reposted to have LEWIS COUNTY’S LEGAL said that “the I. W. W. is doing PROSTITUTE Herman Allen, prosecuting attorney of nothing wrong in Centralia-is Lewis County. He stood at the corner during the raid and received papers stolen not violating any law-and you from the hall. There is no record of his have no sight to drive them out having protested againat any illegal action. He turned over his office to the special of town in this manner.” The ~mxecutors and acted as their tool through- out. During the entire trial he never ap- Chief of Police then proceeded neared as an active participant. to tell the audience that he had taken up the matter of legally evicting the industrialists with City Attorney C. E. Grimm, a brother of Warren 0. Grimm, who is said to have told them, “Gentlemen, there is no law by which you can drive the I. W. W. out of town.” City Commissioner Saunders and County Attorney Allen had spoken to the same effect. The latter, Allen, had gone over the literature of the organization with regard to violence and destruction and had voluntarily dismissed a “criminal syndicalist” case without trial for want of evidence. Hubbard was furious at this turn of affairs and shouted to Chief of Police Hughes: “It’s a damned outrage that these men should be permitted to remain in town! Law or no law, if I were Chief of Police they wouldn’t stay here twenty-four hours.” “I’m not in favor of raiding the hall myself,” said Scales. “But I’m certain that if anybody else wants to raid the I. W. W. Hall there is no jury in the land will ever convict them.” After considerable discussion the meeting started to elect a committee to deal with the situation. First of all an effort was made to get a workingman elected as a member to help camou- I flage its very evident character and make people believe that “honest labor” was also desirous of ridding the town of the hated 45 I. W. W. Hall. A switchman named Henry, a member of the Railway Brotherhood, was nominated. When he indignantly cleccked, Hubbard, red in the face with rage, called him a “damned .9, THE INNER CIRCLE Scales then proceeded to tell the audience in general and the city officials in particular that he would himself appoint a committee “whose inner workings were secret,” and see if he could not get around the matter that way. The officers of the , League were then elected. The President was County Coroner David Livingstone, who afterwards helped to lynch Wesley Everest. Dr. Livingstone made his money from union miners. William Scales was vice president and Hubbard was treasurer. The secret committee was then appointed by Hubbard. As its name implies it was an underground affair, similar to the Black Hundreds of Old Russia. No record of any of its proceedings has ever come to light, but according to best available knowledge, Warren 0. Grimm, Arthur McElfresh, B. S. Cromier and one or two others who figured prominently m the raid, were members. At all events on November 6th, five days before the shooting, Grimm was elected Commander of the Centralia’ Post of the American Legion, taking the place of Scales, who resigned in his favor. Scales evidently was of the opinion that a Siberian veteran and athlete was better fitted to lead the “shock troops” than a mere counter-jumper like himself. There is no doubt but the secret committee had its members well placed in positions of strategic importance for the coming event. The following day the Tacoma News Tribune carried a signi- ficant editorial on the subject of the new organization: “At Centralia a committee of citizens has been formed that takes the mind back to the old days of vigilance committees of the West, which did so much to force law-abiding citizenship upon certain lawless elements. It is called the Centralia Protec- tive Association, and its object is to combat I. W. W. activities in that city and the surrounding country. It invites to member- ship all citizens who favor the enforcement of law and order . . . It is high time for the people who do believe in the lawful and orderly conduct of affairs to take the upper hand . . . Every city and town might, with profit, follow Centralia’s example.” The reference to “lawful and orderly conduct of affairs” has taken a somewhat ironical twist, now that Centralia has shown the world what she considers such processes to be. No less significant was an editorial appearing on the same date in the Centralia Hub: “If the city is left open to this menace, we will soon find ourselves at the mercy of an organized band of outlaws bent on destruction. What are we going to do about it?” And, referring to the organization of the “secret committee,” the editorial stated: “It was decided that the inner workings of the organiza- 46 more effectively co; using similar tactics.” The editorial reeks with lies; but it was necessary that the mob spirit should be kept at white heat at all times. News- paper incitation has never been punished by law, yet it is directly A’ responsible for more murders, lynchings and saids than any other one force in America.

THE PLOT LEAKS OUT By degrees the story of the in- THE STOOL PIGEON famous secret committee and its Tom Morgan, who turned stat&a evidence. There is an historical precedent for Mor- diabolical plan leaked out, adding 6zm. Judas acted similarly, but Judas later had the manhood to go out and hang positive confirmation to the himself. Morgan left for “parts unknown.” many already credited rumors in circulation. Some of the news- papers quite openly hinted that the I. W. W. Hall was to be the object of the brewing storm, Chief of Police $ughes told a mem- ber of the Lewis County Trades Council, William T. Merriman by name, that the business men were organizing to raid the hall and drive its members out of town. Merriman, in turn carried the statement to many of his friends and brother unionists. Soon the prospective raid was the subject of open discussion,-over the breakfast toast, on the street corners, in the camps and mills -every place. So common was the knowledge in fact that many of the . craft organizations in Centralia began to discuss openly what they should do about it. They realized that the matter was one which concerned labor and many members wanted to protest and were urging their unions to try to do something. At the Lewis County Trades Council the subject was brought up for discussion by its president, L. I?. Dickson. No way of helping the loggers was found, however, if they would so stubbornly try to keep open their headquarters in the face of such opposition. Harry Smith, a brother of Elmer Smith, the attorney, was a delegate at this meeting and reported to his brother the discussion that took place. Secretary Britt Smith and the loggers at the Union hall were not by any means ignorant of the conspiracy being hatched against them. Day by day they had followed the development of the plot with breathless interest and not a little anxiety. They knew from bitter experience how union men were handled when they were trapped in their halls. But they would not entertain the idea of abandoning their principles and seeking personal safety. Every logging camp for miles around knew of the danger also. The loggers there had gone through the hell of the organization period and had felt the wrath of the lumber barons. Some of them felt $7 a tude of the Industrial Workers of the World towards “over- throwing the government,” and “violence and destruction” would discourage the terrorists from ’ attempting such a flagrant and brutal injustice as the one con- templated. Regarding the deportation a of I. W. W.‘s for belonging to an organization which advocates such things, Secretary of Labor Wilson had stated a short time previously : “An exhaustive study into the by-laws and prac- tices of the I. W. W. has thus far failed to disclose anything that brings it within the class of or- ganizations referred to.” Others of the loggers were “OILY” ABEL buoyed up with the many vic- Suave and slimy aa a snake; without any of the kindlier traits of nature. W. H. tories won in the courts on Abel, sounded the gamut of rottennesBin “criminal syndicalism” charges his efforts to convict the accused men without the semblance of a fair trial. Abel and felt that the raid would be is notorious throughout Washington as the too “raw” a thing for the lumber hireling of the lumber interests. In 1917 he prosecuted “without fee” all Iaborinr interests even to consider. All men on strike and is attorney for the Cos- were secure in the knowledge mopolis “penitentiary” so called on account of the brutality with which it treats em- and assurance that they were ploycs. Located in one of the small towns violating no law in keeping open of the state Abel has made a fortune mosecutina labor Casey for the srtecial in- their hall. And they wantea tercats. that hall kept open. Of course the question of what was to be done was discussed at their business meetings. When news reached them on Novem- ber 4th of the contemplated “parade” they decided to publish a leaflet telling the Citizens of Centralia about the justice and legal- ity of their position, the aims of their organization and the real reason for the intense hatred which the lumber trust harbored against them. Such leaflet was drawn up by Secretary Britt Smith and approved by the membership. It was an honest, out- spoken appeal for public sympathy and support. This leaflet- word for word as it was printed and circulated in Centralia- is reprinted below: TO THE CITIZENS OF CENTRALIA WE MUST APPEAL “To the law abiding citizens of Centralia and to the working class in general: We beg of you to read and carefully consider the following : 48 Jail of the I. W. W. were those under the espionage law, where we were forced to trial before jurors, all of whom were at political and industrial enmity toward us, and in courts hostile to the working class. This same class of handpicked courts and juries also convicted many labor leaders, socialists, non-partisans, paci- fists, guilty of no crime save that of loyalty to the working class. “By such courts Jesus the Carpenter was slaughtered upon the charge that ‘he stirreth up the people.’ Only last month 25 I. W. W. were indicted in Seattle as strike leaders, belonging to an unlawful organization, attempting to overthrow the govern- ment and other vile things under the syndicalist law passed by 49 the last legislature. To exterminate the “wobbly” both the court and jury have the lie to every charge. The court held them a lawful organization and their literature was not disloyal nor in- citing to violence, though the government had combed the country from Chicago to Seattle for witnesses, and used every pamphIet taken from their hall in government raids. “In Spokane 13 members were indicted in the Superior Court for wearing the I. W. W. button and displaying their emblem. The jury unanimously acquitted them and the court held it no crime. “In test cases last month both in the Seattle and Everett Su- perior Courts, the presiding judge declared the police had no authority in law to close their halls and the padlocks were order- ed off and the halls opened. “Many I. W. W. in and around Centralia we& to France and fought and bled for the democracy they never secured. They came home to be threatened with mob violence by the law and order outfit that pilfered every nickle possible from their mothers and fathers while they were fighting in the trenches in t&e thick- est of the fray. “Our only crime is solidarity, loyalty to the working class and justice to the oppressed.”

“LET THE MEN IN UNIFORM DO IT” On November 6th, the Centralia Post of the American Legion met with a committee from the Chamber of Commerce to ar- range for a parade-another “patriotic” parade. The first anni- versary of the signing of the armistice w&s now but a few days distant and Cehtralia felt it incumbent upon herself to celebrate. Of course the matter was brought up rather circumspectly, but knowing smiles greeted the suggestion. One business man made a motion that the brave, boys wear their uniforms. This was agreed upon. The line of march was also discussed. As the union hall was a little off the customary parade route, Scales suggested that their course lead past the hall “in order to show them how strong we are.” It was intimated that a command “eyes right” would be given as the legionaires and business men passed the union headquarters. This was merely a poor excuse of the secret committeemen to get the parade where they needed it. But many innocent men were lured into a “lynching bee” without knowing that they were being led to death by a hidden ‘gang of broad- cloth conspirators who were plotting at murder. Lieutenant Cormier, who afterwards blew the whistle that was the signal for the raid, endorsed the proposal of Scales as did Grimm and McElfresh-all three of them secret committeemen. Practically no other subject but the “parade” was discussed at this meeting. The success of the project was now assured for it had been placed into the hands of the men who alone could arrange to “have the men in uniform do it.” The men in uni- 50

“We’ve been discussing the threatened raid on the I. W. W. hall,” he said. “Who are you, an I. W. W.?” asked Grimm. Dunning replied stating that he was vice president of the Labor Assembly and proceeded to tell Grimm the feeling of his organization on the subject. “Decent labor ought to keep its hands off,” was Grimm’s laconic reply. The Sunday before the raid a public meeting was held in the union hall. About a hundred and fifty persons were in the audience, mostly working men and women of Centralia. A num- ber of loggers were present, dressed in the invariable mackinaw, stagged overalls and caulked shoes. John Foss, an I. W. W. ship builder from Seattle, was the speaker. Secretary Britt Smith was chairman. Walking up and down the isle, selling the union’s pamphlets and papers was a muscular and sun-burned young man with a rough, honest face and a pair of clear hazel eyes in which a smile was always twinkling. He wore a khaki army coat above stagged overalls of a slightly darker shade,-Wesley Everest, the ex-soldier who was shortly to be mutilated and lynched by the mob. “I HOPE TO JESUS NOTHING HAPPENS” The atmosphere of the meeting was already tainted with the Terror. Nerves were on edge. Every time any newcomer would enter the door the audience would look over their shoulders with apprehensive glances. At the conclusion of the meeting the log- gers gathered around the secretary and asked him the latest news about the contemplated raid. For reply Britt Smith handed them copies of the leaflet “We Must Appeal” and told of the efforts that had been made and were being made to secure legal pro- tection and to let the public know the real facts in the case. “If they raid the hall again as they did in 1918 the boys won’t stand for it,” said a logger. “If the law won’t protect us we’ve got a right to protect our- selves,” ventured another. “I hope to Jesus nothing happens,” replied the secretary. Wesley Everest laid down his few unsold papers, rolled a brown paper cigarette and smiled enigmatically over the empty seats in the general direction of the new One Big Union label on the front window. His closest friends say he was never afraid of anything in all his life. None of these men knew that loggers from nearby camps, having heard of the purchase of the coils of rope, were watching the hall night and day to see that “nothing happens.” The next day, after talking things over with Britt Smith, Mrs. McAllister, wife of the proprietor of the Roderick hotel from whom the loggers rented the hall, went to see Chief of Police Hughes. This is how she told of the interview: “I got worried and I went to the Chief. I says to him, ‘Are pou going to protect my property?’ Hughes says, ‘We’ll do the 52 __.------

CARTING AWAY WESLEY EVEREST’S BODY FOR BURIAL After the mutilated body had been cut down it laid in the river for two days. Then it ~88 taken back to the city jail where it remained for two days mar-as an object lesson-in plain view of the comrades of the murdered boy. Everest was taken from this building to be lynched. During the first week after the tragedy this jail witnessed scenes of torture and horror that equalled the worst days of the Spanish inquisition. best we can for you, but as far as the wobblies are concerned they wouldn’t last fifteen minutes if the business men start after them. The business men don’t want any wobblies in this town’.” The day before the tragedy Elmer Smith dropped in at the union hall to warn his clients that nothing could now stop the raid. “Defend it if you choose to do so,” he told them. “The law gives you that right.” It was on the strength of this remark, overheard by the stool-pigeon, Morgan, and afterwards reported to the prosecution, that Elmer Smith was hailed to prison charged with murder in the first degree. His enemies had been certain all along that his incomprehensible delusion about the law being the same for the poor man as the rich would bring its own punishment. It did; there can no longer be any doubt on the subject. THE SCORPION’S STING November 11th was a raw, gray day; the cold sunlight barely penetrating the mist that hun, w over the city and the distant tree-cald hills. The “parade” assembled at the City Park. Lieu- tenant Cormier was marshal. Warren Grimm was commander of the Centralia division. In a very short time he had the various bodies arranged to his satisfaction. At the head of the proces- sion was the “two-fisted” Centralia bunch. This was followed by one from Chehalis, the county seat, and where the parade would logically have been held had its purpose been an honest one. Then came a few sailors and marines and a large body of well dressed gentlemen from the Elks. The school children who were to have marched did not appear. At the very end were a couple of dozen boy scouts and an automobile carrying pretty girls dressed in Red Cross uniforms. Evidently this parade, unlike 53 the one of 1918, did not, like a scorpion, carry its sting in‘the rear. But wait until you read how cleverly this part of it had been arranged ! The marchers were unduly silent and those who knew nothing of the lawless plan of the secret committee felt somehow that something must be wrong.. City Postmaster McCleary and a wicked-faced old man named Thompson were seen carrying coils of rope. Thompson is a veteran of the Civil War and a minister of God. On the witness stand he afterwards swore he picked up the rope from the street and was carrying it “as a joke.” It turned out that the “joke” was on Wesley Everest. “Be ready for the command ‘eyes right’ or ‘eyes left’ when we pass the ‘reviewing stand’,” Grimm told the platoon com- manders just as the parade started. The procession covered most of th.e line of march without incident. When the union hall was reached there was some craning of necks but no outburst of any kind. A few of the out- of-town paraders looked at the place curiously and several business men were seen pointing the hall out to their friends. There were some dark glances and a few long. noses but no dem- onstration. “When ‘do we reach the reviewing stand?” asked a parader, named Joe Smith, of a man marching beside him. “Hell, there ain’t any reviewing stand,” was the reply. “We’re going to give the wobbly hall ‘eyes right’ on the way back.” The head of the columns reached Third avenue and halted. A command of ‘about face’ was given and the procession again started to march past the union hall going in the opposite direc- tion. The loggers. inside felt greatly relieved as they saw the crowd once more headed for the city. But the Centralia and Chehalis contingents, that had headed the parade, was now in the rear-just where the “scorpion sting” of the 1918 parade had been located ! The danger was not yet over.

“LET’S GO,! AT ‘EM, BOYS!” The Chehalis division had marched past the hall and the Centralia division was just in front of it when a sharp command was given. The latter stopped squarely in front of the hall but the former continued to march. Lieutenant Cormier of the secret committee was riding between the two contingents on a bay horse. Suddenly he placed his fingers to his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. Immediately there was a hoarse cry of “Let’s go-o-o ! At ‘em, boys !” About sixty feet separated the two con- tingents at this time, the Chehalis men still continuing the march. Cormier spurred his horse and overtook them. “Aren’t you boys in on this?” he shouted. At the words “Let’s go,” the paraders from both ends and the middle of the Centralia contingent broke ranks and started on the run for the union headquarters. A crowd of soldiers surged against the door. There was a crashing of glass and a 64 at which place Grimm had been shot but it was necessary that he be placed at a convenient distance from the hail. It is seported on good authority that Grimm, just before he died in the hospital, 55 confessed to a person at his bedside: “It served me right, I had no business being there.” A workingman, John Patterson, had come down town on Armistice Day with his three small children to watch the parade. He was standing thirty-five feet from the door of the hall when . the raid started. On the witness stand Patterson told of being pushed out of the way by the rush before the shooting began. He saw a couple of soldiers shot and saw Grimm stagger away from the doorway wounded in the abdom,en. The testimony of Dr. Bickford at the coroner’s inquest under oath was as follows: “I spoke up and said I would lead if enough would follow, but before I could take the lead there were many ahead of me. Someone next to me put his foot against the door and forced it open, after which a shower of bullets poured through tne opening about us.” Dr. Bickford is an A. E. F. man and one of the very few legionaires who dared to tell the truth about the shooting. Th; f;;traha business element has since tried repeatedly to In trying to present the plea of self defense to the court, defense attorney Vanderv,eer stated : “There was a rush, men reached the hall under the command of Grimm, and yet counsel asks to have shown a specific overt act of Grimm before we can present the plea of self-defense. Would he have had the men wait with their lives at stake? The fact is that Grimm was there and in defending themselves these men shot. Grimm was killed because he was there. They could not wait. Your honor, self defense isn’t much good after a man is dead.” The prosecution sought to make a point of the fact that the loggers had fired into a street in which there were innocent by- standers as well as paraders. But the fact remains that the only men hit by bullets were those who were in the forefront of the mob. THROUGH THE HALL WINDOW How the raid looked from the inside of the hall can best be described from the viewpoint of one of the occupants, Bert Faulk- ner, a union logger and ex-service man. Faulkner described how he had dropped in at the hall on Armistice Day and stood watch- ing the parade from the window. In words all the more startling for their sheer artlessness he told of the events which followed: First the grimacing faces of the business men, then as the soldiers returned, a muffled order, the smashing of the window, with the splinters of glass falling against the curtain, the crashing open of the door . . . and the shots that “made his ears ring,” and made him run for shelter to the rear of the hall, with the shoulder of his overcoat torn with a bullet. Then how he found himself on the back stairs covered with rifles and commanded to come down with his hands in the air. Finally how he was frisked to the city jail in an automobile with a business man 56 , standing over him armed with a piece of gas pipe. Eugene Bar- nett gave ‘a graph- ic description of the raid as he saw it from the office of the adjoining Roderick Barnett said he saw the line go - - past the hotel.‘The business men were CITY PARK, CT------ahead of the sol- At this placethe parade assembled that started out to raid the diers and as this Union hall and lynch its secretary. detachment passed the hotel returning the soldiers still were going north. The business men were looking at the hall and pointing it out to the soldiers. Some of them had their thumbs to their noses and others were saying various things. “When the soldiers turned and came past I saw a man on horseback ride past. He was giving orders which were repeated along the line by another. As the rider passed the hotel he gave a command and the second man said : ‘Bunch up, men!’ “When this order came the men all rushed for the hall. I heard glass break. I heard a door slam. There was another sound and then shooting came. It started from inside the hall. “As I saw these soldiers rush the hall I jumped up and threw off my coat. I thought there would be a fight and I was going to mix in. Then came the shooting, and I knew I had no business there.” Later Barnett went home and remained there until his arrest the next day. In the union hall, besides Bert Faulkner, were Wesley Everest, Roy Becker, Britt Smith, Mike Sheehan, James McIner- ney and the “stool pigeon,” these, with the exception of Faulkner and Everest, remained in the hall until the authorities came to place them under arrest. They had after the first furious rush of their assailants, taken refuge in a big and long disused ice box in the rear of the hall. Britt Smith was unarmed, his revolver being found afterwards, fully loaded, in his roll-top desk. After their arrest the loggers were taken to the city jail which was to be the scene of an inquisition unparalleled in the history of the United States. After this, as an additional punishment, they were compelled to face the farce of a “fair trial” in a capitalistic court.

WESLEY EVEREST But Destiny had decided to spare one man the bitter irony of judicial murder. Wesley Everest still had a pocket full of cartridges and a forty-four automatic that could speak for itself. This soldier-lumberjack had done most of the shooting in the hall. He held off the mob until the very last moment, and, in- stead of seeking refuge in the refrigerator after the “paraders” had been dispersed, he ran out of the back door, reloading his pistol as he went. It is believed by many that Arthur McElfresh was killed inside the hall by a bullet fired by Everest. In the yard at the rear of the hall the mob had already reorganized for an attack from that direction. Before anyone knew what had happened Everest had broken through their ranks and scaled the fence. “Don’t follow me and I won’t shoot,” he called to the crowd and displaying the still smoking blue steel pistol in his hand. “There goes the secretary !” yelled someone, as the logger started at top speed down the alley. The mob surged in pursuit, collapsing the board fence before them with sheer force of num- bers. There was a rope in the crowd and the union secretary was the man they wanted. The chase that followed probably saved the life, not only of Britt Smith, but the remaining log- gers in the hall as well. Running pell-me11 down the alley the mob gave a shout or exultation as Everest slowed his pace and turned to face them. They stopped cold, however, as a number of quick shots rang out and bull.ets whistled and zipped around them. Everest turned in his tracks and was off again like a flash, reloading his pistol as he ran. The mob again resumed the pursuit. The logger ran through an open gateway, paused to turn and again fire at his pursuers ; then he ran between two frame dwellings to the open street. When the mob again caught the trail they were evidently under the impression that the logger’s ammunition was exhausted. At all events they took up the chase with redoubled energy. Some men in the mob had rifles and now and then a pot-shot would be taken at the fleeing figure. The marksmanship of both sides seems to have been poor for no one appears to have been injured. DALE HUBFiARD This kind of running fight was kept up until Everest reached the river. Having kept off his pursuers thus far the boy started boldly for the comparative security of the opposite shore, splash- ing the water violently as he waded out into the stream. The mob was getting closer all the time. Suddenly Everest seemed to change his mind and began to retrace his steps to the shore. Here he stood dripping wet in the tangled grasses to await the arrival of the mob bent on his destruction. Everest had lost his hat and his wet hair stuck to his forehead. His gun was now so hot he could hardly hold it and the last of his ammunition was in the magazine. Eye witnesses declare his face still wore a quizical, half bantering smile when the mob overtook him. With the pistol held loosely in his rough hand Everest stood at bay, ready to make a last stand for his life. Seeing him thus, and no doubt 58

A rope appeared from somewhere. “Let’s finish the job!” cried a voice. The rope was placed about the neck of the logger. “You haven’t got guts enough to lynch a man in the daytime,” was all he said. At this juncture a woman brushed through the crowd and took the rope from Everest’s neck. Looking into the distorted faces of the mob she cried indignantly, “You are curs and cowards to treat a man like that !” There may be human beings in Centralia after all. Wesley Everest was taken to the city jail and thrown with- out ceremony upon the cement floor of the “bull pen.” ‘In the surrounding cells were his comrades who had been arrested in the union hall. Here he lay in a wet heap, twitching with agony. A tiny bright stream of blood gathered at his side and trailed slowly along the floor. Only an occasional quivering moan escaped his torn lips as the hours slowly passed by.

“HERE IS YOUR MAN” Later, at night, when it was quite dark, the lights of the jail were suddenly snapped off. At the same instant the entire city was plunged in darkness. A clamour of voices was heard beyond the walls. There was a hoarse shout as the panel of the outer door was smashed in. “Don’t shoot, men,” said the policemen on guard, “Here is your man.” It was night now, and the business men had no further reason for not lynching the supposed secretary. Everest heard their approaching foot steps in the dark. He arose drunkenly to meet them. “Tell the boys I died for my class,” he whispered brokenly to the union men in the cells. These were the last words he uttered in the jail. There were sounds of a short struggle and of many blows. Then a door slammed and, in a short time the lights were switched on. The darkened city was again illuminated at the same mo- ment. Outside three luxurious automobiles were purring them- selves out of sight in the darkness. The only man who had protested the lynching at the last moment was William Scales. “Don’t kill him, men,” he is said to have begged of the mob. But it was too late. “If you don’t go through with this you’re an I. W. W. too,” they told him. Scales could not calm the evil passions he had helped to arouse. But how did it happen that the lights were turned out at such an opportune time? Could it be that city officials were working hand in glove with the lynch mob? Defense Attorney Vanderveer offered to prove to the court that such was the case. He offered to prove this was a part of the greater conspiracy against the union loggers and their hall, -offered to prove it point by point from the very beginning. Incidentally Vanderveer offered to prove that Ear1 Craft, elec- trician in charge of the city lighting plant, had left the station at seven o’clock on Armistice day after securely locking the door; and that while Craft was away the lights of the city were turned 60 off and Wesley Everest taken out and lynched. Furthermore, he offered to prove that when Craft returned, the lights were again turned on and the city electrician, his assistant and the :;I:; of Centralia were in the building with the door again . These offers were received by his honor with impassive judicial dignity, but the faces of the lumber trust attorneys were wreathed with smiles at the audacity of the suggestion. The corporation lawyers very politely registered their objections which the judge as politely sustained.

THE NIGHT OF HORRORS After Everest had been taken away the jail became a night- mare-as full of horrors as a madman’s dream. The mob howled around the walls until late in the night. Inside, a lumber trust lawyer and his official assistants were administering the “third degree” to the arrested loggers, to make them “confess.” One at a time the men were taken to the torture chamber, and so ter- rible was the ordeal of this American Inquisition that some were almost broken-body and soul. Loren Roberts had the light in his brain snuffed out. Today he is a shuffling wreck. He is not interested in things any more. He is always looking around with horror-wide eyes, talking of “voices” and “wires” that no one but himself knows anything about. There is no telling what they did to the boy, but he signed the “confession.” Its most incriminating statement must have contained too much truth for the prosecution. It was never used in court. When interviewed by Frank Walklin of the Seattle Union Record the loggers told the story in their own way: “I have heard tales of cruelty,” said James McInerney, “but I believe what we boys went through on those nights can never be equaled. I thought it was my last night on earth and had reconciled myself to an early death of some kind, perhaps hanging. I was taken out once by the mob, and a rope was placed around my neck and thrown over a cross-bar or something. “I waited for them to pull the rope. But they didn’t. 1 heard voices in the mob say, ‘That’s not him,’ and then I was put back into the jail.” John Hill Lamb, another defendant, related how several times a gun was poked through his cell window by some one who was aching to get a pot shot at him. Being ever watchful he hid under his bunk and close to the wall where the would-be murderer could not see him. Britt Smith and Roy Becker told with bated breath about Everest as he lay half-dead in the corridor, in plain sight of the prisoners in the cells on both sides. The lights went out and Everest. unconscious and dving, was taken out. The men inside &uld hear the shouts of the-mob diminishing as Everest was hurried to the Chehalis River bridge. 61 None of the prisoners was permitted to sleep that night; 1 the fear of death was kept upon them constantly, the voices out- side the cell windows telling of more lynchings to come. “Every time I heard a footstep or the clanking of keys,” said Britt Smith, “I thought the mob ‘/‘. was coming after more of us. I didn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep ; all I could do was strain my ears for the mob I felt sure was coming.” Ray Becker, listening at Britt’s side, said : “Yes, that was one hell of a night.” And the strain of that night seems to linger in their faces ; probably it always will remain-the expression of a memory that can never be blot- ted out. BERT BLAND When asked if they felt Logger. American. (Brother of 0. C. safer when the soldiers arrived Bland.) One of the men who fired from Seminary Hill. Bland has worked all his to guard the Centralia jail, there life in the woods. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World during: the great was a long pause, and finally the etrike of 1917. Bert Bland took to the hills answer was “Yes.” “But you after the shooting and was captured a must remember,” offered one, week later during the man hunt. “that they took ‘em out at Tulsa from a supposedly guarded jail ; and we couldn’t know from where we were what was going on outside.” “For ten days we had no blankets,” said Mike Sheehan. “It was cold weather, and we had to sleep uncovered on concrete floors. In those ten days I had no more than three hours sleep.” “The mob and those who came after the mob wouldn’t let us sleep. They would come outside our windows and hurl curses at us, and tell each of us it would be our turn next. They brought in Wesley Everest and laid him on the corridor floor; he was bleeding from his ears and mouth and nose, was curled in a heap and groaning. And men outside and inside kept up the din. I tried to sleep ; I was nearly mad ; my temples kept pounding like sledge-hammers. I don’t know how a man can go through all that and live-but we did.” All through the night the prisoners could hear the voices of the mob under their cell windows. “Well, we fixed that guy Everest all right,” some one would say. “Now we’ll get Roberts.” Then the lights would snap off, there would be a shuffling, curses, a groan and the clanking of a steel door. All the while they were being urged to “come clean” with a statement that would clear the lumber trust of the crime and throw the blame onto its vic- tims. McInerney’s neck was scraped raw by the rope of the mob but he repeatedly told them to “go to hell !” Morgan, the 62 by immediate acquiescence. Someone has since paid his fare to Darts unknown. His “state-

.L THE HUMAN FIEND a: But with the young logger LO had been taken out into the night thinis were different. . Wesley Everest was thrown, half i unconscious, into the bottom of an automobile. The hands of . the men who had dragged him Ad;+’ ! there were sticky and red Their pant legs were sodden from rub- j. ‘* bing .against the crumpled fig- 8 ure at their feet. Through the &. dark streets sped the three ma- chines. The smooth asphalt be- came a rough road as the sub- urbs were reached. Then came a stretch of open country, with the RAY BECKEF t Chehalis river bridge only a Logger. American born. Twenty-five years of age. St”die’" *-._-l""r ..--_-yrilrs *--L"T rt._Law -:..:-*-...RI..II)bLI short distance ahead. The cars before going to work in the woods. His father and b rother are both preachers. lurched over the uneven road Becker joined the Industrial Workers of with increasing speed, their the World in 1917 and has always been a strong believe ,r in the cause of the soli- headlights playing on each other darity of Lal~ xc..~ He has the zeal of a prophet and the cou~arw of a lion. De- or on the darkened highway. fendec”’ L ““nselr *-’ ,ns,ae., T”e..~ .~~I.“ali WIT”~~!A%. --an 1.._-lY”r Wesley Everest stirred un- Johns1 J”. 38. until hiq ammunition was exhausted. Ii--e surrendered to the author- easily. Raising himself slowly iti-- ra-nnt _.__ thr_.._ _..-._mnh. on one elbow he swung weakIy with his free arm, striking one of his tormentors full in the face. The other occupants immediately seized him and bound his hands and feet with rope. It must have been the glancing blow from the fist of the logger that gave one of the gentlemen his fiendish inspiration. Reaching in his pocket he produced a razor. For a moment he fumbled over the now limp figure in the bot- tom of the car. His companions looked on with stolid acquies- cence. Suddenly there was a piercing scream of pain. The figure gave a convulsive shudder of agony, After a moment Wesley Everest said in a weak voice: “For Christ’s sake, men ; shoot me-don’t let me suffer like this.” On the way back to Centralia, after the parade rope had done its deadly work, the gentleman of the razor alighted from the car in front of a certain little building. He asked leave to wash his hands. They were as red as a butcher’s Great clots of blood were adhering to his sleeves. “That’s about the nastiest job I ever had to do,” was his casual remark as he washed himself in the cool clear water of the Washington hills. The name of this man is known to nearly everybody in Centralia. He is still at large. 63 The headlight of the foremost car was now playing on the slender steel framework of the Chehalis river bridge. This machine crossed over and stopped, the second one reached the middle of the bridge and stopped while the third came to a halt when it had barely touched the plankwork on the near side. The well-dressed occupants of the first and last cars alighted and proceeded at once to patrol both approaches to, the bridge.

LYNCHING-AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION Wesley Everest was dragged out of the middle machine. A rope was attached to a girder with the other end tied in a noose around his neck. His almost lifeless body was hauled to the side of the bridge. The headlights of two of the machines threw a white light over the horrible scene. Just as the lynchers let go of their victim the fingers of the half dead logger clung con- vulsively to the planking of the bridge. A business man stamped on them with a curse until the grip was broken. There was a swishing sound ; then a sudden crunching jerk and the rope tied to the girder began to writhe and twist like a live thing. This lasted but a short time. The lynchers peered over the railing into the darkness. Then they slowly pulled up the dead body, attached a longer rope and repeated the performance. This did not seem to suit them either, so they again dragged the corpse through the railings and tied a still longer rope around the hor- ribly broken neck of the dead logger. The business men were evidently enjoying their work, and besides, the more rope the more souvenirs for their friends, who would prize them highly. This time the knot was tied by a young sailor. He knew how to tie a good knot and was proud of the fact. He boasted of the stunt afterwards to a man he thought as beastly as him- self. In all probability he never dreamed he was talking for pub- lication. But he was. The rope had now been lengthened to about fifteen feet. The broken and gory body was kicked through the railing for the last time. The knot on*the girder did not move any more. Then the lynchers returned to their luxurious cars and procured their rifles. A headlight flashed the dangling figure into ghastly relief. It was riddled with volley after volley. The man who fired the first shot boasted of the deed afterwards to a brother lodge member. He didn’t know he was talking for publication either. On the following morning the corpse was cut down by an unknown hand. It drifted away with the current. A few hours later Frank Christianson, a tool of the lumber trust from the Attorney General’s office, arrived in Centralia. “We’ve got to get that body,” this worthy official declared, “or the wobs wil1 find it and raise hell over its condition.” The corpse was located after a search. It was not buried, however, but carted back to the city jail, there to be used as a terrible object lesson for the benefit of the incarcerated union men. The unrecognizable form was placed in a cell between two 64 ”

THE BURIAT, OF THE MOB’S VICTIM No undertaker would handle Everest’s body. The autopsy was performed by a man from Port- fsnd. who hung the body up by the heels and played a hose on it. The men lowering the plank casket into the prave are Union loggers who had been caught in the police drag net and taken from jail for this purpose. of the loggers who had loved the lynched boy as a comrade and a friend. Something must be done to make the union men admit that they, and not the lumber interests, had conspired to commit murder. This was the final act of ruthlessness. It was fruitful in results. One “confession, ” one Judas and one shattered mind were the result of their last deed of fiendish terrorism. No undertaker could be found to bury Everest’s body, so after two days it was dropped into a hole in the ground by four union loggers who had been arrested on suspicion and were re- leased from jail for this purpose. The “burial” is supposed- to have taken place in the new cemetery ; the body bemg carried thither in an auto truck. The union loggers who really dug the grave declare, however, that the interment took place at a desolate spot “somewhere along a railroad track.” Another body was seen covered with ashes in a cart, being taken away for burial on the morning of the twelfth. There are persistent rumors that more than one man was lynched on the eve of Armistice day. A guard of heavily armed soldiers had charge of the funeral. The grave has since been obliterated. Rumor has it that the body has since been removed to Camp Lewis. No one seems to know why or when. “AS COMICAL AS A CORONER” An informal inquest was held in the city jail. A man from Portland performed the autopsy, that is, he hung the body up , by the heels and played a water hose on it. Everest was reported by the coroner’s jury to have met his death at the hands of parties unknown. It was here that Dr. Eickford let slip the statement 66 about the hall being raided before the shooting started. This was the first inkling of truth to reach the public. Coroner Liv- ing&one, in a jocular mood, reported the inquest to a meeting of gentlemen at the Elks’ Club. In explaining the death of the union logger, Dr. Livingstone stated that Wesley Everest had broken out of jail, gone to the Chehalis river bridge and jumped off with a rope around his neck. Finding the rope too short he climbed back and fastened on a longer one; jumped off again, broke his neck and then shot himself full of holes. Livingstone’s audience, appreciative of his tact and levity, laughed long and hearty. Business men still chuckle over the joke in Centralia. “As funny as a funeral” is no longer the stock saying in this humorous little town; “as comical as a coroner” is now the approv- ed form. THE MAN-HUNT Acting on the theory that “a strong offensive is the best defense,” the terrorists took immediate steps to conceal all traces of their crime and to shift the blame onto the shoulders of their . victims. The capitalist press did yeoman service in this cause by deluging the nation with a veritable avalanche of lies. For days the district around Centralia and the city itseIt were at the mercy of a mob. The homes of all workers suspected of being sympathetic to Labor were spied upon or surrounded and entered without warrant. Doors were battered down at . times, and women and children abused and insulted. Heavily armed posses were sent out in all directions in search of “reds.” All roads were patrolled by armed business men in automobiles. A strict mail and wire censorship was established. It was the open season for “wobblies” and intimidation was the order of the day. The White Terror was supreme. An Associated Press reporter was compelled to leave town hastily without bag or baggage because he inadvertently publish- ed Dr. Bickford’s indiscreet remark about the starting of the trouble. Men and women did not dare to think, much less think aloud. Some of them in the district are still that way. To Eugene Barnett’s little home came a posse armed to the teeth. They asked for Barnett and’were told by his young wife that he had gone up the hill with his rifle. Placing a bayonet to her breast they demanded entrance. The brave little woman refused to admit them until they had shown a warrant. Barnett surrendered when he had made sure he was to be arrested and not mobbed. 0. C. Bland, Bert Bland, John Lamb and Lpren Roberts were also apprehended in due time. Two loggers, John Doe Davis and Ole Hanson, who were said to have also fired on the mob, . have not yet been arrested. A vigorous search is still being made for them in all parts of the country. It is believed by many that one of these men was lynched like Everest on the night of November 11th. 66 nrruusmx t ** N%~ AND TERROR ; The reign of iy . terror was extend- ’ ed to cover the en- 1 . tire West coast. * 1 Over a thousand men and women were arrested m i the state of Wash- ington alone. Un- ion halls were clos- ed and kept that way. Labor papers were sunmessed and man; men have been” given COTJRT HOUSE AT MONTESANn-A _,ND “.,..““~I~-”contonroc nf-- --frnm ---- A TdTTLE “A TMOSPHERi?’ nno tn fnnrtncm The. eirl wa held 0x1 the third floor of the building aa you look I’he soldiers were sent for over the head of the the lumber trust attorneys of the pros~ntion. %-h&r only paw wz was to .create t$e proper “atmosphere” for their possession ion. copies of periodic- als which contained little e lse but the truth about tragedy. The Seattle Union Record was temporarily closed down and its stock confiscated for daring to hint that there were two sides to the story. During all this time the capitalist press was given full rein to spread its infamous poison. The general public, denied the true version of the affair, was shuddering over its morning coffee at the thought of I. W. W. desperadoes shooting down unoffending paraders from ambush. But the lumber in- terests were chortling with glee and winking a suggestive eye at their high priced lawyers who were making ready for the prose- cution. Jurymen were shortly to be drawn and things were “sitting pretty,” as they say in poker. Adding a characteristic touch to the rotten hypocrisy of the situation came a letter from Supreme Court Judge McIntosh to George Dysart, whose son was in command of a posse during

the-_-- ______..__...._msanhnnt. This-~~~ remarkable.~ document- is as follows-Y... . Kenneth Mackintosh, Judge The Supreme Court, State of Washington Olympia. George Dysart, Esq.,

Centralia.------I Wash. November 13, 1919. My Dear Dysart: I want to express to you m,IV -L-r-nnnweiation ------of_- th----G h&h111611 Ull.2nhqr- a&r of citizenship displayed by the people of Centralia in the._-air agonizing calamity. We are all shocked by the manifestation of barbarity on the part of the outlaws, and are depressed by 67 the-2 A*-.loss ..1 of lives . of3 brave3 I-. men,11 butI . at the same._ time are proud 01 brie calm control ana loyalr;y to American ideals demonstl ’ Tated by the returned soldiers and citizens. I am proud to be an in- habitant of a state which contains a city with the record wmcn,.. has been made for Centralia by its law-abiding citizens. Sincerely, (Signed) KENNETH MACKINTOSH. “PATRIOTIC” UNION SMASHING No to be outdone by this brazen example of jddicial perver- sion, Attorney General Thompson, after a secret conference of prosecuti_ng $torneys, is!u$ a circular of advice tc county prose- ,“. eutors. In this document; r;ne suggestlon was made that oftlcers 7 1 * 11 T -JJ.+*L*:-~ “‘---‘--rs+of the MTorld in Wash- ana memoers or tne ~~IUUSL~L~I YV ur’~e ,. II . . ington be arrested by the wholesale unaer the **criminal synal-1. calism” law and brought to trial simultaneously so that they might not be able to secure legal defense. The astounding ret- ommendation was also made that, owing to the fact that juries had been “reluctant to convict,” prosecutors and the Bar Ass+ c&ion should co-operate in ex- amining jury panels so that “none but courageous and patri- ,*;,,..:y otic.. Americans”. . secure places on 1,‘:’

gecly a6 Wnl;rana ciozens VI LIII- I ion workers have been convicted L by “courageous and patriotic” : ‘A juries and sentenced to serve from one to fourteen years in the state penitentiary. Hundreds more are awaiting trial. The verdict at Montesano is now known to everyone. Truly the lives of the four Legion boys which were sacrificed by the lumber interests in furtherarce of their own murderous designs, were well expended. The invest- ment was a profitable one and MIKE SHEEHAN thelT$s$ts are no doubt highly BWII in Ireland. 64 years old. Hns been graT;nymg. y^ ~unmn__-: man for over fifty years, having mned his arandfather’s union when he But just the same the de- w% only eiaht. Has been throuah many . strikes and has been spicaple-1 plot* . of,. the‘- Ar;r;orney111 ed. beaten ar stoker in the General is an obvious effort to War. Mike 8 Union hall, wi defeat the purpose of the courts perience in * find obtain unjust convictions ‘ny “not puilty” Smith. he was means of what is termed “jury ilar charee fixing.” There may be honor among thieves but there is plainly none among the public servants they have working for them! The only sane note sounded during these dark days, outside of the startling statement of Dr. Bickford, came from Montana. Edward Bassett, commander of the Butte Post of the American , Legion and an over-seas veteran, issued a statement to the labor press that was truly remarkable: “The I. W. W. in Centralia, Wash., who fired upon the men that were attempting to raid the I. W. W. headquarters, were fully justified in their act. “Mob rule in this country must be stopped, and’ when mobs attack the home of a millionaire, of a laborer, or of the I. W. W., it is not only the right but the duty of the occupants to resist with every means in their power. If the officers of the law can not stop these raids, perhaps the resistance of the raided may have that effect. “Whether the I. W. W. is a meritorious organization or not, whether it is unpopular or otherwise, should. have absolutely nothing to do with the case. The reports of the evidence at the coroner’s jury show that the attack was made before the firing started. If that is true, I commend the boys inside for the action that they took. “The fact that there were some American Legion men among the paraders who everlastingly disgraced themselves by taking part in the raid, does not affect my judgment in the least. Any one who becomes a party to a mob bent upon unlawful vio- lence, cannot expect the truly patriotic men of the American Legion. to condone his act.”

VANDERVEER’S OPENING SPEECH Defense Attorney George Vanderveer hurried across the con- tinent from Chicago to take up the legal battle for the eleven men who had been arrested and charged with the murder of Warren 0. Grimm. The lumber interests *had already selected six of their most trustworthy tools as prosecutors. It is not the pur- pose of the present writer to give a detailed story of this “trial” -possibly one of the greatest travesties on justice ever staged. This incident was a very important part of the Centralia con- spiracy but a hasty sketch, such as might be portrayed in these pages, would be an inadequate presentation at best. It might be well, therefore, to permit Mr. Vanderveer to tell of the case as he told it to the jury in his opening and closing arguments. Details ofthe trial itself can be found in other booklets by more capable authors. Vanderveer’s opening address appears in part ~below : May it please the court and gentlemen of the jury:-As you have already sensed from our examination of you and from a question which I propounded to counsel at the close of his statement yesterday, the big question in this case is, who was the aggressor, who started the battle? Was it on the one side a deliberately planned murderous attack upon innocent marchers, or was it on the other side a deliberately planned wicked attack upon ‘the 69 L.T W.I. W-7 ‘, wk;n.h..sslr.. thnv“x.-J marcalw“.b’..xJ x+&d?IX That, I say, is the issue. 1I asked counsel what his position would be in order that you might know it, and that he said was his position, that he would stand and fall and be judged by it, and I say to you now that is our posi- tion, and we will stand or fall and be judged by that issue. In order that you may properly understand this situation, and the things that led up to it, the motives underlying it, the manner in which it was planned and executed, I want to go just a little way back of the occur- rence on November Filth, and state to you in rough outline the situation that existed in Centralia, the objects that were involved in this case, the things each are trying to accomplish and the way each went about it. There has been some effort on the part of the state to make it annear it is not an I. W. W. trial. I felt throughout that the I. W. W. issue must come into this case, and now that they have made their opening statement, I say unre- servedly it is here in this case, not because we want to drag it in here, but because .it can’t be left .out,. To JAMES McINERNEY conceal from you gentlemen that it is *. Born in Connty Claire. Ireland. an I. W. W. issue would be merely to the Industrial Workers. . of the World conceal the truth from you and we, on IsI AVID.,” -..was wounaea on the steamer “‘Verona” when the Iv-‘--lL.l-l *-b..w+t tried lo our part, don’t want to do that now exterminate the union .~...--.hnnherurorkrvm ______4th._._ or at any time hereafter. bullets at Everett. Washington. McInerney was one of those trapped in the hall. He The I, W. W. is at the bottom of surrendered to officers of the law. rhile this. Not as an aggressor, however. in the city jail his neck war J ---rworn raw with a hanam--’ Rrl s rope I” an effort to It is a labor organization, organized make him “con ,frss” that the loaners and in Chicago in 1905, and it is because not the mob had started the trouble. Mc- Inerney told them to “ITO to hell.” He is of the philosophy for which it stands Irish and an I. W. W. aad proud of and because of certain tactics which it being both. evolves that this thing arose. A LABOR MOVEMENT ON TRIAL The I. W. W. is the representative in this country of the labor move- ment of the rest of the world. It is the representative in the United States of the idea that capitalism is wrong; that no man has a right, moral or other- wise, to exploit his fellowmen, the idea that our industrial efforts should be conducted not for the profits of any individual but should be conducted for social service, for social welfare. So the I. W. W. says first, that the wage system is wrong and thai; it means to abolish that wage system. It says that it intends to do this, no’c by political action, not by balloting, but by organization on the industrial or economical field, precisely as employers, precisely as capital is organized on the basis of the industry, not on the basis of the ‘Eool. The I. W. W. says industrial evolution has progressed to. that point where the tool no longer enforces craftsmanship. In the place of a half dozen or dozen who were employed, each a skilled artisan, employed to do the work, you have a machine process to do that work and it resulted in the organization of the industry on an industrial basis. You have the oil industry, controlled by the Standard Oil; you have the lumber industry, controlled by the Lumbermen’s Association of the South and West, and you ._-..--“_--- 1---- renultimz in a fusinp. or coruoration,

,““I‘. tn itc mvn indnqtrid unit.

U’L’Y, LLVI.. _\ --.-I -e-r------in t,he coal mining industry. where

MCIIk3D2Y attitude capital has taken all over The “It’s no u8e tryulg M uy. “b country towards it. 8 man like that,” was the final deemon In the next place it says ‘chat of the inquisitors. labor should oreanize on the basis of

S”lHC I”II”LLIIICllbal p.“wy’G, c&LIIU 1UU”/ “..“u.u .Jrgzuuzc! L”I s”‘,lr;ul.-r& ‘ZlVI” than a mere bartering and dickering for fifty cents a das or for some shorter time, something of %hat so&. It says that the system is fundamentally wrong and must be fundamentally changed before you can look for some improvement. Its philosophy is based upon government statistics which show that in a few years in this country our important industries have crept into the hands of industrial kings and princes. Two per cent of our people own more than two-thirds of our entire wealth. Seventy-five per cent of the workers in the basic industry are unable to send their children to school. O----nty-oneacvc. per cent of the heads of the families in our basic AI...,u.IY‘.ILu;*J~rc+&~c ---ara unab., 1” LL---“C. _“___-_ the assistance of the oth&“&&bers. - ‘^--%w&$%ine per cent of our laborers are able to live up to the myth that he is the head of the family. The rF@ts of these evils are manifold. Our people are not being raised in decent vlcmltles. They are not being raised and educated. Their health is not being cared for; their morals are not being cared for. I will show you that in certain of our in- dustries where the wages are low and the hours are long, tha% the chilclren of the working people die at the rate of 300 to 350 per thousand mhabltants under the age of one year because of their undernourishment, lack of proper housing and lack of proper medical attention and because the mothers of +i.n~n nh;lA~pn hofnwzn-_--*_ t,hpv“---.’ gyp-^_ horn..~~ and \yhen t hn..u ohildvrn.,_A . . .._- _- save-_- heinp-- - .carried ~~~~e~%~~& womb that they are compelled to go into the industries and work and work and work, and before the child can receive proper nourish- ment the mother is compelled to go back into the industry and work again. The I. W. W.‘R say there must be a fundamental change and that fundamental 71 change must be in the line of reorganization of industrv. for nublic service. so that the purpose shall be that w‘;? will work to live a& not &merely live to work. Work for service rather than work for profit. I TO KILL AN IDEAL.. . ’ Some time in September, counsel told you, the I. W. W,, holding these belie !fs, opened a hall in Centralia. Back of that hall was a living room, where Rritt ISmith lived, kept his clothes and belongings and made his home. From then on the I. W. W. conducted a regular propaganda meeting every Saturday night. These propaganda meetings were given over to a dis- cussion of these industrial problems and beliefs. From that district there were dispatched into nearby lumber camps and wherever there were working people to whom to carry this message--there were dispatched organizers who went out, made the talks in the camps briefly and sought to organize them into this union, at least to teach them the philosophy of this labor movement. Because that propaganda is fatal b those who live by other people’s work, who live by the profits they wring from labor, it excited intense oppo- sition on the part of employers and business people of Centralia and about the time this hall was opened we will show you that people from Seattle, where they maintain their headquar- ters for these labor fights, came into Centralia and held meetings. I don’t know what they call this new thing they were seeking to organize-it is in fact a branch of the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association of the United States, a national organization whose sole purpose is to fight and crush and beat labor. It was in no sense a local movement because it started in Seattle and it was organized by people from Seattle, and ‘Ehe pur- pose was to organize in Centralia an organization of business men to com- bat this new labor philosophy. Wheth- er in the mouths of the I. W. W., or Nonpartisan League, or the Socialists, it did not make any difference; to brand anybody as a traitor, un-Amer- ican, souKht to tell the truth about our industrial conditions.

TEE TWO RAIDS Iu the fall of 1918. the I. W. W. had a ball two blocks and a half from this hall, at the corner of First and B streets. There was a Red Cross pa- rade, and that hall was wrecked, just -. BLAND as was this hall. These profiteering - ._ _^ gentlemen never overlook an oppor- Ihgner. American. Kesident of Uent.rl)ll8 tunity to capitalize a patriotic event, for P number of years. Has ---‘e-,aW”rnr’ :- woods end mills practically a111 his and so they capitalized the Red Cross Has a wife and mven children. Bland aa?r parade that day just as they capital- ,in the Arnold hotel at the time of the mid. He was armed but had e”&YL C-,,,a L-’UIIllU ized the Armistice Day parade on No- Y..,.n krnlrnn-.-..... rr,%am-.-- hnCm.\rp.: __-I_ h‘x..” h.,..A a chance vcmbcr 11, and in exactly the same way TP ahooi+~ Since his arrest and conviction as on November 11. lis family has undermne m?Verf ? hardships. The defense is mnkins an effc trt to raise And that day, when the tail-end of enough. . . funds. _to . keep the., helpless. 1~~wivw .I.- an* cntlaren Of me COnVICteCL men m ule the narade of the Red Cross comforts of life. the main avenue, it broke off and went 72 a block out of its way and attacked the I. W. W. hall, a good two-story building. And they broke it into splinters. The furniture, records, the lit- erature that belongs to these boys, everything was taken out into the street and burned. Now, what was contemplated on Armistice Day? The I. W. W. did as you would do; it judged from experience.

PATIENCE NO LONGER A VIRTUE When the paraders smashed the door in, the I. W. W.‘s, as every lover of free speech and every respector of his person-they had appealed to the citizens, they had appealed to the officers, and some of their members had ^ been tarred and feathered, beaten up, and hung-they said in thoughta “Patience has ceased to be a virtue.” And if the law will not pro’cect us, and the people won’t protect us, we will protect ourselves. And they did. And in deciding this case, I want each of you, members of the jury, to ask yourself what would you have done ? There had been discussions of this character in the I. W. W. hall, and so have there been discussions everywhere. There had never ben a ulot laid to murder anybody, nor to shoot anybody in any parade. I want you to ask yourself: “Why would anybody want to shoot anybody in a parade,” and ‘to particularly ask yourself why anyone would want to shoot upon soldiers? He who was a soldier himself, Wesley Everest, the man who did mo,st of the shooting and the man whom they beat until he was unconscious and whom they grabbed from the street and put a rope around his neck, the man whom they nearly shot to pieces, and the man whom they hung, once dropping him ten feet, and when that didn’t kill him lengthened the rope to 16 feet and dropped him again-why would one soldier want to kill an- other soldier,, or soldiers, who had never done him nor his fellows any harm? I exonerate the American Legion as an organization of the responsibility of this. For I say they didn’t know about it. The day will come when they will realize that they have been mere catspaws in the hands of the Cemralio commercial interests. That is the s’sory. I don’t know what the verdict will be today, but the verdict ten years hence will be the verdict in the Lovejoy case; that these men were within their rights and that they fought for a cause, that these men fought for liberty. They fought for these things for which we stand and for which all true lovers of liberty stand, and those who smashed them up are the real enemies of our country. This is a big case, counsel says, the biggest case ‘that has ever been ‘tried in this couutry, but the biggest thing about these big things is from beginning to end it has been a struggle on the one side for ideals and on the other side to suppress those ideals. This thing was started with Hub- bard at its head. It is being started today with Hubbard at its head in this courtroom, and I don’t believe you will fall for it.

VANDERVEER’S CLOSING ARGUMENT There are only two real issues in this case. One is the question: Who was the aggressor in the Armistice Day affray? The other is: Was Eugene Barneti in the Avalon hotel window when that affray occurred? We have proven by unimpeachable witnesses that there was a raid on the I. W. W. hall in Centralia on November 11-a raid, in which the business interests of the city used members of the American Legion as catspaws. We have shown that Warren 0. Grimm, for the killing of whom these defendants are on trial. actualls took Dart in that raid. and was in the very doorway of the hall when the attack was made, despite the attempts of thi prosecution to place Grimm 100 feet away when he was shot. We have proven a complete alibi for Eugene Balnett through unshaken and undisputable witnesses. He was not in the Avalon hotel during the riot; he was in the Roderick hotel lobby; he had no gun. anri he took no part in the shooting. 73 r ----0 ------_--, --- - or fall on the issue ‘of: Who was the aggressor on Armistice ‘Day ? I have stood by that promise, and stand by it now. Mr. Abel, specially hired prose- cutor in this trial, made the same promise. So did Herman Allen, the official Lewis county prosecutor, who has been so ingloriously shoved aside by Mr. Abel and his colleague, Mr. Cunningham, ever since the beginning here. But a few days ago, when the * defense was piling up evidence show- ing that there was a raid on the I. W. W. hall by the paraders, Mr. Abel backed down. WHY WERE THE SHOTS FIRED? I was careful in the beginning to put him on record on that point; all along I knew that he and Mr. Allen would back down on the issue of who was the aggressor; they could not up- JOHN LAMB hold their contention that the Armis- r-:---1 -e Industrlar tice Day paraders were fired upon in Lamb was cold blood while engaged in lawful and I. C. Bland peaceful action. Neither of I Lamb baq What nossible motive could these mar ,ried boys : have ‘hat d for firing upon inno- left de- cent marching P:oldiers? It is trr Le that the marchers were fired upon; that shots were fired by some of these defendants; but why were the shots fired ? There is only one reason why-they were defending their own legal property against unlawful invasion and attack; they were defending the dwelling place of Britt Smith, their secretary. And they had full right to defend their lives and that property and that home against violence or destruction; they had a right ro use force, if neces- sary, to effect that defense. The law gives them that right; and it accrues to them also from all of the wells of elementary justice. The law says that when a man or group of men have reason to fear at- tack from superior numbers, they may provide whatever protection they may deem necessary to repel such an attack. And it says also that if a man who is in bad company when such an attack is made happens to be killed by the defenders, those defenders are not to be considered guilty of that man’s death. So ‘6’7:~ had the troops come, to blow bugles and drill in the streets where the jury could see; their power, however wielded, was great enough to cause Governor Hart to send the soldiers here without consulting the trial judge or the sheriff, whose function it was to preserve law and order here -and you know, I am sure, that law and order were adequately preserved Bert before the troops came. “FEARFUL OF THE TRUTH” They tried the moth-eaten device of arresting our witnesses for alleged perjury, hoping to discredit those witnesses thus in your eyes because they knew they couldn’t discredit them in any regular nor legitimate way. Fearful of the truth, the guilty ones at Centralis deliberately framed up evidence to save themselves from blame-to throw the respons

the Armistice Day horror onto other men. But they bungled the frame-up badly. No bolder nor cruder fabrication has ever been attempted than the ridiculous effort to fasten tbe killing of Warren Grimm upon Eugene Barnett. These conspirators were clumsy enough in their planning to drive the I. W. W. out of town; their intent was to stampede the marching soldiers into raiding the I. W. W. hall. But how much more clumsy was the frame-up afterward-the elaborate fixing of many witnesses to make i6 appear that Grimm was shot at Tower avenue and Second street when he actually was shot in front of the hall; and to make it appear that Ben Cnsagranda and Earl Watts were shot around the corner on Second st.reet, when they were actually shot on Tower avenue, close to the front of the hall. Do you think that Elsie Hornbeck told the truth while she was on the witness stand ? Or did she lie? She told you that she saw a chin-faced man in the Avalon hotel window on Armistice Day, before the shooting; and after many hrlpless pauses and appealing glances at Mr. Abel, she iden- tified Barn&t as that man. She had sworn that she had never seen the man in the window from that shrieking day until she saw Barnett in court; and made it appear that she was able to recognize Iiarnett solely because of the vivid impression his face made upon her memory on h’ov. 11. Then, you will remember, I compelled Elsie Hornbeck to aclmit that she had been shown photographs of Barnett hy the prosecution. She would+not have told this fact, had I not trapped her mto admitting it; that was obvious to everybody in this courtroom that clay. You have heard the gentlemen of the prosecution assert that this is a murder trial, and not a labor trial. But they have been careful to ask all our witnesses whether they were I. W. W. members, whether they belonged to anv labor union, and whether they were sympathetic towards workers on trial for their lives. And when the answer to any of these questions was yes, they tried to brand the witness as one not worthy of belief. Their policy of thus browbeating working people who were called as witnesses is in keeping with the tactics of the mob during the days when it held Centralia in its grasp. You know, even if the detailed story has been barred from the record, of the part F. R. Hubbard, lumber baron, played in this horror at Central& You have heard from various witnesses that the lumber mill owned by Hub- bard’s corporation, the Eastern Railway and Lumber Company, is a notorioua 75 I non-union concern. And you have heard it said that W. A. Abel, the special prosecutor here, has been an ardent and active 1aTt)or-lbalter . .. for^ years. Hubbard_ wanted to drive the I. W. W. out of Centralia. Why did he want to drive them ~-ou_t~, He- said they were a menace. And it is true that they were a menaLc, a1~~ ant: i1 menace-to those who exploit the workers who produce r;he wealth for the a__fnwr +ALIv L--dva. pniov

WHY WERE ROPES CARRIED? Was there a raid on the hall before the shooting? Dr. Frank %&ford, a reputable physician, appeared here and repeated under* oath- what he had swain to at the coroner’s inquest-that wher I the- parade stopped, he offered to Iead a raid on the hall if enough 7voula ” follow,-but that others pushed ahead of him, forced open the door, an d then the shots came from inside. And why did the Rev. H. W. Thorn rxon have a rope? Thompson believes in hanging men by the neck until thev-are deacl. Pnen77 me.” state -li;mployers’ . - Association and others wanted the ganging law ia t --*Washington - . revived noti long ago, the Reverend Thompson lectured in many cities and towns in behalf of that law. And he has since lectur ed- widely against the I. W. W. . Did he carty a rope in the parade because 11be owned a cow and a calf? Or what ? Why did the prosecution need so many attorne! ,‘s here, if it had the facts straight ? Why were scores of American LegIonz - ’ members imported here to sit at the trial at a wage of 54 per day a nd eli:penses 7 They have told you this was a murder 1Sal, and not a labor trial. But vastly more than the lives of ten men are th e stakes in the big gamble here; for the-1 right of workers to organize for the bettering of their own condi- tson I‘sI on .trial; the right of free as- scmbiage. . IS on trial; tlemocracv and Amerlcanlsm are on -trial. In our opening statement, we promlsea’ ’ to prove various facts: and we have proven them, in the main; if there are any contentions about which the evidence remains vague, this cir- cumstance exists only because His Honor. . has seen3.1 fit. to*ulc . . out. . certain tesrlmony. . wnlcn. . is _vital . . to- . the case, and . we- believed, and stM believ e, was entirely mat ;erial and proprrly admis- sible. But is there any doubt in your minds i that there._ was a conspiracy to raid tne1.-T~TITTI~ 1. w. w. nau,.I ana a. to run tne. . Industrial Workers of the World out oftown? r Gven lt.- the- court will not allow you tc) read the handbill issued. . by the I. by.IT, 1-1w., asKlng. . protectlon from the citizens of Centralia, have you any doI_lbt that the I. W. W. had i.eason to fear an attack from Warren . I . Grimm and his fellow marchers ? And ,r. have you any doubt that there was a GEORGE VA3 JDERVEER raid on the hall ? This man single hsnde ‘d oooosed six hieh When I came into this case I knew priced lumber trust ~r&&tors in &e that we_ we Pe uv against tremendous famous trial at Montesxno. Vanderveer is odds,- - Terror was ibose in Centralia; a man of wide experience and deep social . 1. vision. He was at one time prosecuting preJuaice an d hatred against the I. W. attorney for Kinz County, Washington. W. was b eincr svstematicallv and TLlye Alumbe~ tryst Jam’ - made cou~t!ess sweepingly spITead i in Grays &arbor county and throughout the whole Northwest; and intimi,dation or in- 76 fluence of some sort was being employed against every possible witness and talesman. Not only were unlimited money and other resources of the Lewis Coumy oommercial interests banded against us, but practically all the attorneys up and down the Pacific coast had pledged themselves not to defend any I. W. W., no matter how great nor how small the charge he faced. Our in- vestigators were arrested without warrant; solicitors for our defense fund met with the same fate. And when the trial date approached, the judge before whom this case is being heard admitted that a fair trial could not be had here, because of the surging prejudice existent in this community. Then, five days later, the court announced that the law would not permit a second change of venue, and that the trial must go ahead in Montesano. In the face of these things, and in the face of all the atmosphere of violence and bloodthirstiness which the prosecution has sought to throw around these defendants, I am placing our case in your hands; I am in- trusting to you, gentlemen, to decide upon the fate of ten human beings- whether they shall live or die or be shut away from their fellows for months or years. But I am asking you much more than that-1 am asking you to decide the fate of organized labor in the Northwest; whether its fundamental rights are to survive or be trampled underfoot. THE LUMBER TRUST WINS THE JURY On Saturday evening, March 13th, the jury brought in its final verdict of guilty. In the face of the very evident ability of the lumber interests, to satisfy its vengeance at will, any other verdict would have been suicidal-for the jury. The prosecution was out for blood and nothing less than blood. Day by day they had built the structure of gallows right there in the courtroom. They built a scaffolding on which to hang ten loggers-built it of lies and threats and perjury. Dozens of wit- nesses from the Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion took the stand to braid a hangman’s rope of untruthful testimony. Some of these were members of the mob ; on their white hands the blood of Wesley Everest was hardly dry. And they were not satisfied with sending their victims to prison for terms of from 25 to 40 years, they wanted the pleasure of seeing their necks broken. But they failed. Two verdicts were returned ; his honor refused to accept the first; no intelligent man can accept the second. Here is the way the two verdicts compare with each other: Elmer Smith and Mike Sheehan were declared not guilty and Loren Roberts insane, in both the first and second verdicts. Britt Smith, 0. C. Bland, James McInerney, Bert Bland and Ray Becker were found guilty of murder in the second degree in both instances, but Eugene Barnett and John Lamb were at first declared guilty of manslaughter, or murder “in the third degree” in the jury’s first findings, and guilty of second degree murder in the second. The significant point is that the state made its strongest argument against the four men whom the jury practically exoner- ated of the charge of conspiring to murder. More siqificant is the fact that the whole verdict completely upsets the charge of conspiracy to murder under which the men were tried. The dif- ference between first and second degree murder is that the former, 77 ‘\ \

first degree, implies premeditation while the other, second degree, means murder that is not premeditated. Now, how in the world can men be found guilty of conspiring to murder without previous premeditation? The verdict, brutal and stupid as it is, shows the weakness and falsity of the state’scharge more eloquently than anything the defense has ever said about it. BUT LABOR SAYS, “NOT GUILTY!” But another jury had been watching the trial. Their verdict came as a surprise to those who had read the newspaper version of the case. No sooner had the twelve bewildered and frightened men in the jury box paid tribute to the power of the Lumber Trust with a ludicrous and tragic verdict than the six workingmen of the Labor Jury returned their verdict also. Those six men repre- sented as many labor organizations in the Pacific Northwest with a combined membership of many thousands of wage earners. The last echoes of the prolonged legal battle had hardly died away when these six men sojourned to Tacoma to ballot, deliberate and to reach their decision about the disputed facts of the case. At the very moment when the trust-controlled newspapers, frantic with disappointment, were again raising the blood-cry of their . pack, the frank and positive statement of these six workers came like a thunderclap out of a clear sky,-“Not Guilty !” The Labor Jury had studied the development of the case with earnest attention from the beginning. Day by day they had watch- ed with increasing astonishment the efforts of the defense to pre- sent, and of the prosecution and the judge to exclude, from the consideration of the trial jury, the things everybody knew to be true about the tragedy at Centralia. Day by day the sordid drama had been unfolded before their eyes. Day by day the conviction had grown upon them that the loggers on trial for their lives were being railroaded to the gallows by the legal hirelings of the Lumber Trust. The Labor Jury was composed of men with experience in the labor movement. They had eyes to see through a maze of red tape and legal mummery to the simple truth that was be’mg hidden or obscured. The Lumber Trust did not fool these men and it could not intimidate them. They had the courage to give the truth to the world just as they saw it. They were convinced in their hearts and minds that the loggers on trial were innocent. And they would have been just as honest and just as fearless had their convictions been otherwise. It cannot be said that the Labor Jury was biased in favor of the defendants or of the I. W. W. If anything, they were predis- posed to believe the defendants guilty and their union an outlaw organization. It must be remembered that all the labor jury knew of the case was what it had read in the capitalist newspapers prior to their arrival at the scene of the trial. These men were not radicals but representative working men-members of conserva- tive union&who had been instructed by their organizations to ob- serve impartially the progress of the trial and to report back to their unions the result of their observations. Read their report: 78 Labor Temple, 1

The Labor Jury met in the rooms of the Labor Temple and I

cret ballot of guilty or y

2. Shall we aive

3. Was there a conspiracy to raid the I. W. W business interests of Centralia? Verdict *‘Yes.” There was evidence offered by the dekense to show that the business in- terests held a meeting at the Elks’ Club on October 20, 1919, at which ways and means to deal with the I. W. W. situation were discussed. F. B. Hubbard, Chief of Police Hughes and William Scales, commander of the American Legion at Centralia, were present. Prosecuting Attorney Allen was quoted as having said, “There is no law that would let you run the I. W. W. out of town.” Chief of Police Hughes said, “You cannot run the I. W. W. out of a---.L”WUj -‘L,...u,ay 1.IlaY??---^ -.:..I-C-JVI”IsILtxl -,.11” 1-...,am\. 3, E-. Pu. U..LI.,...AIIlL”VSILU -..:AazLU, “T+t,AC J L1. ~,czl“lLAn..+,. Olla‘llL,nboma. if I was chief I would have them olt of town in 24 hours.” William Scales, presiding at the meeting, said that although he was not in favor of a raid, there was no American jury that would convict them if They did, or words to that effect. He then announced that he would appoint a secret committee to deal with the I. W. W. situation. 4. Was the I. W. W. hall unlawfully raided? Verdict, “Yes.” The evi- dence introduced convinces us that an attack was made before a shot was fired. 5. Had the defendants a right to defend their hall. Verdict, “Yes.” On a former occasion the I. W. W. hall was raided, furniture destroyed and stolen, ropes placed around their necks and they were otherwise abused and driven out of town by citizens, armed with pick handles. 6. Was Warren 0. .Grimm a party to the conspiracy of raiding the I. W. W. hall? Verdict, “Yes.” The evidence introduced convinces us that Warren 0. Grimm participated in the raid of the I. W. W. hall. 7. To our minds the most convincing evidence that Grimm was in front of and raiding the I. W. W. hall with others, is the evidence of &ate Witness Van Gilder, who testified that he stood at the side of Grimm at the inter- section of Second street and Tower avenue, when, according to his testimony, Grimm was shot. This testimony was refuted by five witnesses who testified that they saw Grimm coming wounded from the direction of the I. W. W. hall. It is not credible that Van Gilder, who was a personal and intimate friend of Grimm, would leave him when he was mortally wounded, to walk half a block alone and unaided. 8. Did the defendants get a fair and impartial trial? Verdict, “No.” The most damaging evidence of a conspiracy by the business men of Centralia, of a raid on the I. W. W’. hall, was ruled out bv the court and not permitted to go to the jury. This was one of the principal’issues that the defense sought to establish. 79 Also the calling of the federal troops by Prosecuting Attorney Allen was for no other reason than to create atmosphere. On interviewing the judge, sheriff and prosecuting attorney, the judge and the sheriff informed us that in ‘their opinion the troops were not needed and that they were brought there without their consent or knowledge. In the interview Mr. Allen promised t0 furnish the substance of the evidence which in his opinion necessitated the presence of the troops the next morning, but on the-following day he declined the information. He, however, did say that he did not fear the I. W. W., but was afraid of violence by the American Legion. This confession came after he was shown by us the fallacy of the I. W. W. coming armed to interfere with the verdict. Also the presence of the American Legion in large num- bers in court. Theodore Meyer, Everett Central Labor Council; John 0. Craft, Seattle Metal Trades Council; E. W. Thrall, Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, Cen- tralia; W. J. Beard, Tacoma Central Labor Council; Otto Newman, Portland Central Labor Council; P. K. Mohr, Seattle Central Labor Council. The above report speaks for itself. It was received with great enthusiasm by the organizations of each of the jurymen when the verdict was submitted. On March 17th, the Seattle Central Labor Council voted unanimously to send the verdict to all of the Central Labor Assemblies of the United States and Canada. Not only are the loggers vindicated in defending their property and lives from the felonious assault of the Armistice Day mob, but the conspiracy of the business interests to raid the hall and the raid itself were established. The participation of Warren 0. Grimm is also accepted as proved beyond doubt. Doubly significant is the statement about the “fair and impartial trial” that is supposed to be guaranteed all men under our constitution. Nothing could more effectivell stamp the seal of infamy upon the whole sickening rape of justice than the manly outspoken statements of these six labor jurors. Perhaps the personalities of these men might prove of interest: E. W. THRALL, of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, Centralia, is an old time and trusted member of his union. As will be noticed, he comes from Centralia, the scene of the tragedy. OTTO NEWMAN, of the Central Labor Council, Portland, Oregon, has ably represented his union in rhe C. L. C. for some time. W. J. BEARD is organizer for the Central Labor Council in Tacoma, Washington. He is an old member of the Western Federation of Miners and remembers the terrible times during the strikes at Tulluride. JOHN 0. CRAFT is president of Local 40, International Union of Steam Operating Engineers, of which union he has been a member for the last ten years. Mr. Craft has been actively connected with unions affiliated with the A. F. of L. since 1898. THEODORE MEYER was sent by the Longshoremen of Everett, Wash- ington. Since 1903 he has been a member of the A. F. of L.; prior to that time being a member of the National Sailors and Firemen’s Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Sailors’ Union of Australia. P. K. MOHR represents the Central Labor Council of Seattle and is one of the oldest active members in the Seattle unions. Mr. Mohr became a charter member of the first Bakers’ Union in 1889 and was its first pre- siding officer. He was elected delegate to rhe old Western Central Labor Council in 1890. At one time Mr. Mohr was president of the Seattle Labor Council. At the present time he is president of the Bakers’ Union. Such‘are the men who have studied the travesty on justice in the great labor trial at Montesano. “Not Guilty” is their verdict Does it mean anything to you ? 80 -

%!9e$lep@beres’t 0 Torn and defiant as a wind-lashed reed, Wounded, he faced you as he stood at bay; You dared not lynch him in the light of day, But on your dungeon stones you let him bleed; Night came . . . and you black vigilants of Greed,. . . Like human wolves, seized hard upon your prey, Tortured and killed . . . and, silent, slunk away Without one qualm of horror at the deed. Once . . . long ago . . . do you remember how You hailed Him king for soldiers to deride- You placed a scroll above His bleeding brow And spat upon Him, scourged Him, crucified.. . ? A rebel unto Caesar-then as now- Alone, thorn-crowned, a spear wound in His side! -R. C. in “N. Y. Call.” ,. .: ‘.

., :

017 arc ahlc to read this booklet only because the logpcrs of t.he Northwest dug dov-n in Y thrill pockc~t. and paid for its publication. These rn~n arc ronvinced that the Centralia tragetiy has been criminally misrepresented by the prcs.~. They want you to know the t.ruth about it-and t,hey want )wur friends to know. This first edition of the “Centralia Conspiracy” is a small one. If you wish to help give it a wider circulation the union loggers of the West coast will appwciatc 1 our contribution. The families of the convicted mm must he taken rare of and the case XL-ST hc appealed. Also an effo& is being made to bring members of the lynch mob to thv bar of justice. If you t!ccitlc to help. x!ntl a bill in an envelope today-or next pay day. Send it registered to the adtIre>;:: I,C?lOW. Othrr Centralia pamphlets are in stock or in pwpal,ation. A.Gk for a list.

c:eo. William+ WOK t873, Seattle, Wash. Frank Gould, 318 No. Wyoming St., Butte, Montana Thos. Whitehead, 1001 West Madison, St., Chicago, Ill. The price of this booklet is 50~ per single copy, MC each for 10 to 100 copies, 2Sc per ropy 100 or over. Special prices on lots of 1000 or over. Carriage pre- paid.